More accusations vs Honasan

Opposition Sen. Gregorio Honasan was implicated anew in the failed July 27 mutiny when a Camp Aguinaldo commander testified before the Feliciano Commission yesterday that Honasan gave instructions to the renegade soldiers to call for the resignation of Philippine National Police (PNP) Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr.

Commodore Tirso Danga, commander of Camp Aguinaldo, told the commission that when the rebel soldiers made their initial statements to the media during the early hours of July 27, they demanded the resignation only of President Arroyo, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes and Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Victor Corpus.

Danga said it was only after Honasan talked to the rebel soldiers that Ebdane’s name was included.

Danga said he arrived at the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center apartments at around 4 p.m. on July 27 and saw Honasan with Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Vicente Sotto and Housing Secretary Michael Defensor already talking to the group of Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV.

This, he said, was shortly before the arrival of chief negotiator Ambassador Roy Cimatu, Army Scout Ranger commander Col. Danilo Lim, former Air Force chief Lt. Col. Eduardo Uban and STAR publisher Maximo Soliven.

He recounted that before leaving Oakwood, Honasan told the junior officers to include Ebdane’s name on the list because of the escape of terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi.

Danga noted that the soldiers sounded their agreement to Honasan’s suggestion.

The government earlier tagged Honasan as the brains behind the failed uprising based on evidence gathered after the incident, including partially destroyed diskettes left behind by the rebel soldiers at the Oakwood Hotel and photographs of an alleged meeting of the rebel soldiers with a man who looks like Honasan. — With Aurea Calica