Arroyo told Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) finance ministers that military adventurism remained a problem because soldiers who launched a spate of deadly coup attempts a generation earlier had gotten away with murder.

More than 300 junior officers and men face life imprisonment for alleged rebellion following the 21-hour siege in the Makati financial district on July 27. Officials alleged the mutiny formed part of a larger plot involving politicians to install a junta in Arroyo's place.

"Because laws have been violated and the constitution has been threatened, we can assure due process but not unwarranted leniency," Arroyo said in a speech to open the two-day ASEAN ministerial meeting.

"The resurgence of mutinies can be traced in part to a reluctance to enforce justice against military adventurism," she added.

The Corazon Aquino government -- itself installed in power by a military-backed popular revolt -- foiled seven military rebellions in the late 1980s that left hundreds of Filipinos dead, many of them civilians.

The current government has accused one of the leaders of the 1980s coup attempts, opposition Senator Gregorio Honasan, of leading the latest mutiny. The former Army officer denies the charge and has gone in hiding.

Fidel Ramos, a former general who succeeded Aquino as president, bought a decade of relative peace by striking a peace settlement with military rebels who won blanket amnesty in 1995.

In 2001 another military-backed popular revolt unseated the democratically elected president Joseph Estrada in favor of Arroyo, the elected vice president. Estrada has been detained and is on trial for corruption.

"We have learned our lessons and we will not allow the duly constituted political authority to be held hostage by a few men-at-arms," Arroyo said Wednesday.

"Civilian authority will never be forced to act upon any grievances to the end of a gun, especially those that are already being acted upon."

She assured the officials from ASEAN members Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam that "business continues as usual" despite the failed rebellion.

"We are consolidating our position rapidly," she said.

With criminal charges lodged and an independent inquiry looking into the root causes of military restiveness, "it is fitting that the din of recriminations pipe down and give way to sobriety and prudence," she added.

The message was apparently directed at Congress, whic has been insisting that the military allow the detained leaders of the mutiny to testify at parallel congressional public hearings.

The ASEAN meeting is being held at a hotel a block away from the site of the Makati siege.

ASEAN secretary-general Ong Keng Yong said that along with the deadly terrorist blast in Jakarta on Tuesday, the Manila mutiny had dampened investor confidence.

"What is in the minds of the ministers is that all these little things add up to the unease among the foreign investors and businessmen," Ong said.

"To the people in America or in Europe, whether it is the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, or Singapore, it is Southeast Asia and so they all shy away from the region."

WAR.WIRE