Arroyo aides singled out opposition Senator Gregorio Honasan and supporters of detained former president Joseph Estrada as key backers of a military mutiny that was crushed by Arroyo on Sunday.

They said Honasan would be charged shortly.

Police fanned out across the capital and nearby areas Thursday in search of safehouses where the military rebels could have stored weapons and supplies to support armed action against the government, officials said.

"It is true that the plot is far from over, but it is being contained and will soon be completely under control," Arroyo said in a statement.

"We are engaged in preemptive measures -- administratively, operationally and politically."

Roy Cimatu, Arroyo's chief negotiator, said during a congressional hearing on the mutiny Thursday that the president was prepared to use deadly force including artillery that could have killed "hundreds" to crush the mutiny.

"I knew that the rocket and artillery attack would have levelled Oakwood," the condominium used as the operational headquarters of the rebel soldiers, Cimatu said.

The government meanwhile asked state prosecutors to file rebellion charges against 321 junior military officers and enlisted men who launched the revolt by occupying a section of the Makati financial district early Sunday.

The standoff ended 22 hours later after the government agreed to investigate claims by the rebel soldiers of corruption in the military and government.

The mutineers failed to win over the support of others in the military as well as the public.

While a full-scale coup had been averted, "it is possible however that similar mutinies will again be launched by rebellious elements who are not accounted for," National Security Adviser Roilo Golez warned at the hearing Thursday.

"The threat is still live, meaning to say that based on our information, there are several members who are still at large who we believe might be part of the coup attempt," military chief of staff General Narciso Abaya told the hearing.

Arroyo said "there are plotters, operators, financiers and backers, both in and out of government, who are still (out) in the cold.

"We will expose them and bring them to justice," she said.

Arroyo ruled out imposing emergency rule. "This is not a state for martial law or its repressive implications," she said.

Abaya said at least one of the junior officers detained in connection with the mutiny had received death threats.

"There seems to be a compact among them that they do not have to reveal the plot, otherwise they, or even their families were threatened with bodily harm."

One member of deposed president Estrada's cabinet has been detained and charged in connection with the rebellion.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina said rebellion charges are also being prepared against Senator Honasan, a key Estrada ally.

Civilian volunteers identified with Honasan had manned key street intersections in Makati before dawn as the rebels took over an upscale commercial and residential complex in the district, he said.

Both Estrada and Honasan, who in the 1980s led several coup attempts as an army colonel, have both denied any role in the coup attempt.

Police said raids on the house of a detained Estrada aide, Ramon Cardenas, as well as two others had yielded guns, ammunition, supplies and documents as well as armbands similar to those worn by the mutineers.

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