Escaped Coup Leader Captured!

F L A S H!

US-trained fugitive coup leader Army Lt. Lawrence San Juan has been arrested before sunrise Tuesday near a military checkpoint after he allegedly met with communist rebel leaders in Batangas province, south of Manila, officials said.

San Juan, one of four escaped "Oakwood" mutineers, was nabbed around 5.45 a.m. by joint police and military agents in San Felipe village in Padre Garcia town. He was arrested with two other men onboard a van, officials said.

Officials said San Juan was allegedly trying to forge an alliance with the New People's Army to bring down the Arroyo government.

He was the second of six coup leaders who escaped from military custody in Manila this year. First to fall was Capt. Nicanor Faeldon who was arrested with another female military officer in Malabon City.

On July 27, 2003, some 300 soldiers, led by the so-called Magdalo leaders, took over the Oakwood luxury apartments in the financial district of Makati to protest alleged corruption in the military.

San Juan's arrest came a day after a powerful blast, owned by the shadowy military rightist group Young Officers Union New Generation-Reformist of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, rocked the President Palace in Manila. The group is calling for Arroyo's ouster.

San Juan was one of elite leaders of the Light Reaction Company trained in 2002 by the US Special Forces to hunt down the Abu Sayyaf group tied to al-Qaeda terror network. His group was largely credited for the capture or many terror leaders in the southern Philippines.