Estrada aide held, panel to probe ‘mutiny roots’

Philippine police arrested an aide of former president Joseph Estrada on Monday over a weekend mutiny by disgruntled members of the armed fo...

Philippine police arrested an aide of former president Joseph Estrada on Monday over a weekend mutiny by disgruntled members of the armed forces and said red armbands worn by the mutineers had been found at his home. Police said they had also recovered weapons and ammunition in a raid on the home of Ramon Cardenas.

Meanwhile, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Monday that the Philippine government will set up an independent commission to investigate the roots of the mutiny. ‘‘Such actions are deplorable and will be met with the full force of the law, including the political component,’’ she said in a state of the nation address which was broadcast live on the national television.

Although the uprising ended without a shot being fired, local share prices and the peso currency plunged and analysts said there was deep unease about which way the nation was headed.

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‘‘The future beckons with what looks like the crosswinds of a raging storm,’’ wrote columnist Teodoro Benigno in The Philippine Star, adding that the mutiny was part of general disaffection with the government of President Arroyo.

Cardenas was a cabinet minister in the government of Estrada, who was toppled in 2001 in the Army-backed popular protests that brought Arroyo to power. On Sunday, Estrada was moved from the government hospital where he has been held for months to a military camp as the renegades held out in the Makati shopping mall. At the time, officials had refused to give a reason. (Reuters)