A Philippine court dismissed rebellion charges Thursday against a former vice president and 17 other civilians linked to an attempt by soldiers to trigger an uprising against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last month.

“There is no probable cause to indict the accused civilians for rebellion,” Makati city regional trial court Judge Elmo Alameda said in a ruling.

The judge, however, upheld the prosecutors’ indictment of 15 soldiers and three former military personnel, including Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV ­ a former navy officer facing separate charges of mutiny in 2003.

The group took over the Manila Peninsula Hotel on Nov. 29, but surrendered after government forces drove an armored carrier into the lobby and fired tear gas and warning shots.

During the takeover, U.S.-trained army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim ­ suspected of involvement in another failed coup plot last year ­ issued a statement urging Arroyo to resign and asked the armed forces to withdraw support for her.

Media arrests signal ‘dangerous times ahead’
Journalists present at a Senate hearing Thursday said they fear of “more dangerous times ahead” following the arrests police made on mediamen following the short-lived standoff led by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim at The Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati City on November 29.

“At that point, it made me remember from Holocaust movies, where Jews are being lined up in concentration camps,” Malaya newspaper columnist Ellen Tordesillas said, referring to movies that showed how European Jews were lined up by Nazis for execution during World War II.

Maria Ressa, head of ABS-CBN News and Current Affairs, said the arrest of journalists and technical crewmen with Trillanes and the other suspect creates a “chilling effect.”

“Every journalist reporting on a conflict situation now have to worry if they could be arrested or charged. Journalists can be charged so can the news organization they work for. This is no longer a threat but a reality and creates a chilling effect for working journalists,” Ressa said.

Her statement was in reference to a recent warning from Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno that journalists will again be arrested if the police and the media are caught in a situation similar to the failed rebellion.

Ressa said there are fears that the recent arrest of journalists and other forms of media intimidation are a preview of “a more dangerous time ahead.”

For her part, Charmaigne Gutierrez a reporter for NHK TV, recalled that while journalists were being lined up for transport to the police Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City, she was asking herself if they have been part of Malacañang’s deadline for the police to end the standoff at the hotel.

The journalists insisted that they decided to remain inside the hotel, despite the police’s request, because it was their duty to tell the public what was going on inside.

Ressa said that on that day, it was clear to all the journalists inside the hotel that “the public had the right to know.”

In her statement, Ressa revealed that journalists covering the standoff were aware that there were police and military intelligence agents who infiltrated the media’s ranks.

She said ABS-CBN News did not report the infiltration because it may compromise the agents from the armed rebel soldiers.

“During the crisis we did not report that because we didn’t want to compromise their work, but their presence increased the danger who were inside the room,” she said.

Ressa insisted that the journalists inside the hotel did not obstruct justice, but somehow their reports have even helped the police authorities.

“We categorically state that at no instance did any journalists obstruct justice at The Peninsula. Mere presence and reporting the news is not obstruction of justice,” she said.

She added: “Recordings made by the police of our live coverage are being used as evidence in court… The police benefited from us doing our job. We cannot be both obstructing justice and helping justice simultaneously.”

The Senate inquiry was launched through resolutions filed by senators after media organizations complained of being violated of their rights with their arrest while covering the failed uprising.

Dozens of media personalities were arrested with Trillanes’s group. The journalists’ hands were tied with plastic cable ties and transported to the police camp for processing.

They were eventually released several hours later.

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