Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, in a turnaround from an earlier position, said there was no evidence to suggest Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan was directly involved in the mutiny.

He had been indicted for instigating about 300 junior officers to take up arms and demand Arroyo's resignation for alleged corruption.

The officers briefly occupied the ritzy Oakwood apartment-hotel and a mall complex in Makati, Manila's financial district. They surrendered peacefully hours later.

Honasan, a former army colonel re-elected senator in May 14 elections, was also charged with rebellion for alleged involvement in a foiled coup plot in February 2006. However, the Supreme Court stopped the Justice Department from prosecuting that case.

Announcing his decision, Gonzalez said, "In the first place, Mr. Honasan, while mentioned as some sort of instigator along the way, was never at Oakwood himself."

The judge said certain statements, lectures and a blood pact with the mutineers had been attributed to Honasan _ "but there was never any evidence that he was a part of what happened."

Gonzalez said the dropping of the charges would not affect the case against Honasan's co-accused, former navy officer Antonio Trillanes, who also won a Senate seat while in military detention for the 2003 mutiny.

"It will have no effect, because the situation of Trillanes is different," Gonzalez said. "He was clearly part and parcel of what happened at Oakwood itself."

Unlike Honasan, who met with Arroyo last month to plead his case and who promised not to wage any more coup attempts, Trillanes has called for Arroyo's ouster and said he would like to see her impeached.

Honasan rose to fame as a key military leader in an attempt to oust late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. That uprising failed, but triggered massive protests that led to Marcos' fall.

But Honasan, 59, also turned against Marcos' successor, Corazon Aquino, launching coup attempts against her before he was given amnesty and won a Senate seat in 1995 and again in 2001.

He was on the run for almost nine months before he was nabbed in November. He was released on bail in April.

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