Navy ‘custodial center’ awaits Marine putschists

Marine officers who were implicated in the foiled Feb. 24 coup plot would not be transferred to a Navy jail at Fort San Felipe in Cavite City as earlier planned.

Instead, they would be placed under custody at the Fort Bonifacio Naval Station in Makati City, a military spokesman said.

Commander Giovanni Carlo Bacordo, Navy spokesman, said the 11 accused Marine officers would be brought to the custodial center in compliance with the directive of Armed Forces chief of staff Lt. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon to keep the accused within the confines of the naval station.

Bacordo said former Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and Col. Ariel Querubin are restricted to their quarters at Camp Aguinaldo, the military’s main headquarters.

The custodial center in Makati, which has a staff house, is under constant guard and is surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

The area, Bacordo said, was chosen by Navy chief Vice Admiral Mateo Mayuga.

"They are under guard and when they report to any investigative body, whether it is for pre-trial or for the efficiency and separation board, they will be going there as a group with an escort," he said.

Asked if the facility is similar to a jail, Bacordo relied, "we like to call it a custodial center."

The custodial center in Fort San Felipe is currently under repair. It could take a long time before the accused can be transferred there, Bacordo said.