Coup leader wants Manila's Arroyo toppled in poll

By Manny Mogato

MANILA (Reuters) - Navy Lieutenant Antonio Trillanes has not given up the fight to topple the government of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

In detention for leading a failed coup in 2003, the young officer is mounting a non-violent challenge this year, campaigning for a seat in the upper house of Congress in next week's mid-term elections.

"There are no more reasons for her to stay," Trillanes, wearing a sports shirt and jeans, told a group of foreign correspondents at a military prison in the capital.

"If you want to really serve our people, she must be removed first. Genuine reforms could only be carried out under a fresh government."

Trillanes is detained at the Marines barracks in the capital with 28 other young officers, awaiting trial in a civilian court for attempting to grab power in 2003, seizing a high-rise apartment building at the heart of Manila's financial centre.

A military tribunal is separately trying a mutiny case.

Trillanes was relaxed and friendly when he met journalists at a small reception hall, just outside the prison, enclosed by high and thick walls of cement and barbed wire.

Sitting across a concrete counter, Trillanes talked about his political platform to raise soldiers' pay, professionalise the military and end rampant corruption as unarmed guards watched and listened throughout the interview.