A retired general who served former president Corazon Aquino is trying to recruit President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's bodyguards for a military coup, a senior politician has claimed.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez identified the man at the heart of a plot to destabilise Mrs Arroyo's government as 'General Gazmin'.
After learning that the only general with that surname was Voltaire Gazmin, who served Mrs Aquino as chief of the Presidential Security Group, Mr Gonzalez denied he had personally accused him.
'I did not seek this information, it was just given to me,' he said.
Mr Gonzalez said the possibility that a threat to Mrs Arroyo could come from within Malacanang Palace had him worried because of what had happened to Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and South Korean president Park Chung-hee. Both were assassinated by their own staff.
His revelations lend credence to a recent leaked report from the US embassy that claimed Mrs Arroyo had her own security personnel disarmed at one point because she feared them.
