BY JOCELYN MONTEMAYOR

PRESIDENT Arroyo has ordered officials, particularly from the security and defense sectors, to remain vigilant and to continue to "flush out" remaining threats to public safety and security.

Arroyo issued the orders before she left for an eight-day European trip Saturday night, or three days after Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other leaders of the Oakwood mutiny and their supporters led a six-hour standoff at the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City. The group has been tagged as the "Pen 50,"

Arroyo also ordered the investigation and prosecutorial arms of government to ensure "that the full force of the law will bear heavily, expeditiously but with due process, against those who were or are to be found responsible for… (Thursday’s) disruptive and criminal acts."

"Charges should be leveled against them to leave no doubt about the rule of law in our country," she added.

Arroyo expressed confidence Vice President Noli de Castro and the Cabinet would "zealously look after the national interest."

De Castro and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita co-chair the caretaker committee whenever the President is away.

Cerge Remonde, head of the presidential management staff, said Malacañang is leaving Trillanes’ fate to senators.

"How the Senate will treat one of their own is entirely up to them…Our Revised Penal Code defines crime and provide for their punishment (and) Trillanes cannot be above the law," he said.

Remonde said Trillanes’ being a senator does not diminish his crime and in fact "exacerbates" it." He said Trillanes must face the full consequences of his "irresponsible actuation under the law" and simply allowing him to go unpunished would be the "vilest form of mockery of justice."

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said even ordinary Filipinos were dismayed and outraged that an elected public official "was using extra-constitutional means to ventilate his grievances against the government."

"Whether or not one supports President Arroyo, the rule of law remains paramount and sacrosanct. There are constitutional means and lawful structures for effecting change," he said.

Bunye also said every setback caused by those who advocate changes through extra-constitutional means only makes it harder for the ordinary men and women, who are the "real heroes of our country," to keep the country on the road to progress, to recover and begin anew.

The Spanish government, through the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, on Sunday expressed satisfaction over the "peaceful and successful" resolution of the Peninsula standoff.

In a statement, the Spanish government condemned the latest attempt staged by renegade soldiers and reiterated its support to the Arroyo government.

Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz said he cannot blame Trillanes and company for planning to bring down the Arroyo government as it was also the same "immoral" government that initiated the prevailing social unrest.

"More than Trillanes and company, the GMA government is the problem and cause of the people’s resentment, that of the Magdalo soldiers included," said Cruz, a former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Lt. Col. Ernesto Torres, Army spokesman, said the outcome of the Thursday incident showed the people are already tired of power grab attempts.

"What happened at the Manila Peninsula is very obvious. The people made the decision and the decision is loud and clear – they no longer want to support this kind of measure to initiate change," he said.

Told that government soldiers and policemen had surrounded the hotel even before civilians could show their support, Torres cited the Edsa People’s Power revolt in 1986 when thousands of people came to protect a group of officers who had withdrawn support from then President Ferdinand Marcos.

"If the people support the cause and the way change is being initiated, people can be generated but in this case, there was none. Most of our countrymen are already enlightened and are tired of these repeated incidents. It is just dragging our economy down," he said.

Torres admitted some of the issues raised by the group of Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, who is facing court martial for a power grab attempt in February last year, were valid. However, the hotel was not the proper venue, he said.

"If you are going to see of the issues they were fighting, some of the issues are valid, like problems on poverty, infighting among our leaders, corruption. These things are all real, we are not saying that their cause had no basis," he said.

"Those are real but there are many avenues where these complaints or grievances should be brought, we have a system that we have to respect especially the courts. If we are going to see what happened on the 29th, our judiciary was also insulted," he said, referring to the group’s walkout from the Makati City court that is trying Trillanes’ group for coup d’état in connection with the Oakwood mutiny.

Torres also said all Army officers and men, and their firearms are accounted for.

Last Friday, Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. hinted another attempt to grab power is in the offing.

Asked if Lim no longer has a clout in the Army because he failed to get enough support from units, Torres said: "That is the message that we saw as among the results of the Makati Peninsula incident."

Lim was commander of the elite First Scout Ranger Regiment when he, along with former Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, supposedly planned to withdraw support from the President last year. – With Gerard Naval and Victor Reyes