Botched coup bid in Philippines ends

By Karen Lema and Raju Gopalakrishnan

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine military and police teams stormed a luxury hotel in Manila on Thursday to end a short-lived coup attempt by a small group of soldiers and others who had called on the army to mutiny.

Government forces fired teargas into the lobby of the Manila Peninsula Hotel and used an armored personnel carrier to batter down its glass doors before storming in under cover of repeated bursts of fire in the air.

There were no casualties.

The rebel soldiers, a senator, former Vice-President Teofisto Guingona and a few clerics who had occupied the plush icon in the sprawling city of 12 million people surrendered and were arrested.

"We are going out for the sake of the safety of everybody," their leader Senator Antonio Trillanes earlier told reporters. "For your sake, because we will not live with our conscience if some of you get hurt or get killed in the crossfire. We cannot afford that."

It was the latest in a series of coup attempts to plague the Southeast Asian nation since dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted two decades ago.

Thursday's drama attracted hundreds of curious onlookers, but no one voiced any support for those inside the hotel, and there were no reports of unrest within the military.

Most of the guests had been evacuated before the assault, but over 100 people, including hotel staff and journalists, were caught in the midst of the action.

A bride dressed in wedding finery left the Peninsula by a side exit along with her husband-to-be and guests to hold the reception at a hotel across the road.

"I'm going through with this. Rock n' Roll!" Maria-Stella Magtayo said, clutching a bouquet while a friend held the train of her off-the-shoulder white gown.

HAULED AWAY

When the coup effort collapsed Senator Trillanes, who as a navy officer also led a failed mutiny in 2003 against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and was elected to the upper house in May, was hauled away in plastic wrist restraints.

Fellow mutineers, including around two dozen soldiers, a priest and a retired bishop, were among those arrested. So were scores of journalists.

National police chief Avelino Razon told television that 101 people had been detained, including the journalists. The latter were freed late in the evening after identity checks.

"The wrong ways of some does not speak well for the nation or the armed forces and the police," Arroyo said in a brief television address after the coup attempt ended.