Senior Supt. Rosendo Franco, Negros Occidental police director, yesterday urged Negrenses who may have any information on the whereabouts of a renegade Marine officer who took part in the Nov. 29 Manila Peninsula siege in Makati City to immediately inform the police.

Anyone with information that will lead to the arrest of Faeldon will receive a P1 million reward offered by President Gloria Arroyo, he said.

Franco said he has already informed police stations throughout Negros Occidental to be on the lookout for Capt. Nicanor Faeldon and to immediately arrest him should he seek refuge in the province.

Faeldon is considered a fugitive who is armed and dangerous, Franco said.

The police are also on alert for three other fugitive Magdalo soldiers.

"We expect that the reward offer will encourage the people in the community to provide us with information that will lead to the early arrest of persons involved," Director General Avelino Razon, national police chief, said yesterday.

Faeldon followed his fellow mutineers, Senator Antonio Trillanes -- a former Navy lieutenant -- and Brigadier General Danilo Lim, in taking over the Peninsula to call for Arroyo's ouster.

The mutiny ended six hours later after police fired tear gas and assaulted the hotel. No one was hurt in the incident but Faeldon and other Magdalo soldiers escaped amid the confusion, the police said.

The PNP has identified one of the men as a Corporal Colon, an employee of the Makati City government.

Police say the event was well-organized and that documents recovered at the scene indicated that "four groups" had taken part in planning the mutiny.

Faeldon, who was earlier held for involvement in a similar mutiny against Arroyo in 2003, escaped from a court hearing in 2005 but was recaptured a month later.

In a statement issued Saturday as Arroyo was heading to Europe , she said she was directing government agencies "to remain vigilant and flush out any remaining threats to national security and public safety in the country, while at the same time restoring among our people a state of normalcy and calm."

Her week-long European tour includes official visits to Spain -- the first such visit for a Philippine president in 45 years -- and Britain , and a private stopover in France .

Arroyo also called on investigators and prosecutors to charge the arrested suspects in the mutiny with "the full force of the law."

"Charges should be leveled against them to leave no doubt about the rule of law in our country," she said in the statement.*CPG/AFP

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