By Philippine News Online

MANILA, February 25, 2006 (STAR) (AFP) Brigadier General Danilo Lim, arrested Friday for his alleged role in a plot to unseat President Gloria Arroyo, was considered a highly respected army officer despite his record of involvement in past mutinies.

A 1978 graduate of the West Point military academy in the United States, he led the elite Scout Rangers, who were at the frontlines of campaigns against communist guerrillas and Muslim separatists.

Military chief General Generoso Senga said Friday he had taken Lim into custody after the regiment commander had revealed to him his desire to lead some men against Arroyo.

"A case will be filed against him based on the investigation that will be conducted," said Senga, who stated he had convinced Lim not to go ahead with his plan.

Political commentator Julius Fortuna, writing in the Manila Times last year, described Lim as "respected in military circles for his idealism, integrity, expertise and bravery."

But Lim was also know for his prior involvement in military coups.

On the night of November 30, 1989, Lim, who was a captain along with then major Abraham Purugganan and colonel Rafael Galvez, led the Young Officers Movement (YOU), a covert military fraternity, in a nine-day siege of the Makati business district.

This was part of a coup attempt by rightist military forces against the government of Corazon Aquino, who was installed after the fall of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos on February 25, 1986.

Ninety-one people were killed and 570 wounded during the 1989 coup, the bloodiest of the four failed mutinies against Aquino.

Almost 3,000 officers and men were involved in that coup attempt which would have succeeded if not for the intervention of the US airforce which was then still based at Clark Air Base north of Manila.

American jets buzzed the city and Lim and his troops stood down with many later being jailed. The coup was quashed but the economic fallout lasted for years.

As part of his effort to achieve political stability, Aquino's successor, former military chief Fidel Ramos, signed a peace agreement with the military coup plotters and granted them amnesty.

Over a hundred of these officers were reinstated in the military and some like Lim later received promotions.

Last year he was brought in by Arroyo to play a leading role in the armed forces after the YOU issued a statement that it was being revived to counter the alleged corruption of the government.

Lim obliged, saw the grumbling officers and then later declared that the YOU was no more.

However sources close to the opposition say that Lim had also been forging ties with other anti-Arroyo figures who are seeking the president's ouster for alleged election fraud and corruption.

Government officials Friday said the alleged new plot involved military officers like Lim using rallies marking the 20th anniversary of the 1986 "People Power" revolution to publicly withdraw support for Arroyo.