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MANILA (Reuters) - President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo gave renegade Philippine soldiers until dusk on Sunday to surrender after they briefly trapped Australia's ambassador and other foreigners inside a shopping and apartment complex.
The soldiers, who wired the Oakwood building near Manila's financial district with explosives but denied they were staging a coup, accused the government of planning to declare martial law to stay in office beyond next May's scheduled election.
"We don't intend to grab power," one junior officer told the ABS-CBN television network before the renegades let Australian envoy Ruth Pearce and other foreigners leave the building.
"They are not being held. If they want to go out, they can," another of the soldiers said.
Pearce told reporters she was "fine."
[snip]
As dawn broke over the capital of 10 million people, armored personnel carriers and army trucks blocked off major roads in the central business district but there were no signs of panic as crowds of the curious gathered.
[snip]
The rogue troops, wearing red armbands, displayed a red flag similar to the one used by nationalist General Emilio Aguinaldo in a revolt against Spanish colonial forces in 1896.
[snip]
A statement by the soldiers accused the government of selling weapons to Muslim and communist rebel groups and of orchestrating bombings to make them appear like guerrilla attacks.
"The bullets that are killing our fellow soldiers are coming from the government that we ourselves are fighting for," it said.
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