MANILA (AFP) – Rebel Philippine soldiers stormed a luxury Manila hotel on Thursday and called on the military to immediately withdraw support for embattled President Gloria Arroyo, witnesses said.The soldiers, numbering around 30, were accompanied by armed guards as they broke down a door of the Peninsula Hotel, overwhelmed security guards and read out a statement against Arroyo with a full list of their demands.

Government forces quickly surrounded the hotel in Manila’s Makati financial district — the same location of a failed 2003 coup allegedly led by many of the same rebel soldiers who seized the Peninsula.

The renegades urged Arroyo to resign and called on the military, a crucial force in this vast Southeast Asian island nation with the power to make and break its leaders, to turn against her.

“We are joining our people in calling for a change in leadership,” said Army Brigadier-General Danilo Lim, according to AFP reporters inside the hotel.

“We call on the military to withdraw support for Mrs Arroyo in order to end her unconstitutional and illegal occupation of the presidency,” he said. read more…