MANILA Philippines -- President Corazon Aquino ordered the court-martial Saturday of the leader of the seventh uprising against her, and urged the Philippine Congress to swiftly pass a law increasing penalties for rebellion.
In a nationally televised address, Aquino announced the unconditional surrender of Army Col. Alexander Noble after his 48-hour takeover of two cities in Mindanao and his proclamation of the country's second largest island as an independent federal republic.
'There was no way out unless he was willing to die. Obviously he was not willing to die,' said Aquino, who has crushed six other coup attempts since she took power in a civilian-backed military revolt in 1986.
'He miscalculated, mistaking the sound from his own band of civilian cheerleaders as people's acceptance. He miscalculated in expecting that corollary supportive action from fellow renegades and mercenaries would follow,' Aquino said.
Hours after Noble's surrender, one person was wounded in an explosion that ripped through a jeep parked inside suburban Camp Aguinaldo, the Philippine Armed Forces headquarters.
A second bomb exploded Sunday morning, damaging a tree on a street between the finance and executive department buildings in Manila. There were no injuries. Police said the bomb was believed to have been made of a type of explosive used by the military.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Renato de Villa said troops remained on the maximum state of readiness clamped on military camps across the nation following the rebellion in Mindanao, while mopping-up operations were continuing on the island.
Noble, 42, Aquino's former deputy security chief, walked out at 3 a.m. at the garrison in Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao, 500 miles south of Manila, he had occupied since Thursday after taking Butuan east of the city.
Accompanied by priests and local officials who negotiated his surrender, Noble gave up to Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, a former mayor of the city, at the provincial capital.
Also surrendering with Noble was Col. Victor Erfe, 43, a classmate in the Philippine Military Academy who has been implicated in previous coup attempts.
Opposition politician Reuben Canoy, leader of the Mindanao Independence Movement who helped Noble launch the uprising, was captured at the VIP hotel in Cagayan de Oro.
Noble and Erfe were flown to Manila for investigation at suburban Camp Aguinaldo.
Aquino's Executive Secretary Catalino Macaraig said Noble and Erfe would face a court-martial. Canoy will be charged with rebellion before a civilian court.
Aquino called on Congress to pass immediately laws she had recommended for urgent approval in December increasing penalties for rebellion and making a coup attempt a capital crime.
Noble took over Cagayan de Oro and Butuan without firing a shot before dawn Thursday. But after warplanes bombed Butuan Friday, he decided to surrender.
'I am asking kind treatment for my men,' Noble said. 'I am taking full responsibility.'
The only fatality reported during the uprising was a pilot killed when his plane crashed in the central island of Cebu while returning to base from a mission in Cagayan de Oro.
De Villa said 240 soldiers and militiamen have either surrendered or have been captured and only the mopping-up operations remained.
He said Col. Hercules Galon, commander of Butuan, and Brig. Gen. Miguel Sol, commander of Cagayan de Oro, were undergoing investigation for abandonment of their posts.
Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos said the expected support from army supporters, communist guerrillas and Moslem separatists Noble was counting on did not materialize, dooming the rebellion.
De Villa urged Noble's men still at large to surrender.
'It is not a pleasant task to fight your own kind, but for those who insist on violence, we will have to use force if necessary,' de Villa said.
Aquino thanked the United States, Japan and countries in Asia and Europe that immediately expressed support for her government at the outbreak of the uprising.
The United States provided air support for Aquino in quelling the December uprising in which 119 people were killed and more than 500 were wounded.
Noble, in mounting the coup, accused the government of corruption and inefficiency -- a charge previous mutineers had voiced.
