MANILA, Philippines -- Lawyers of soldiers detained for alleged involvement in plots to overthrow the Arroyo administration in 2006 blocked former Armed Forces chief of staff Hermogenes Esperon Jr.’s testimony on a purported document identifying possible members of the new government.

Dubbed the "Diamond Statement," the document was supposedly important to the mutiny charges against 28 officers as it involved the appointment of a new president and commander-in-chief, said Esperon, head of the Presidential Management Staff, in an interview with reporters at Camp Aguinaldo on Wenesday.

The charges against the 28 officers stemmed from an alleged plot by ex-Army Scout Rangers chief Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Marine Col. Ariel Querubin to lead soldiers in a "peaceful" withdrawal of support from President Macapagal-Arroyo on allegations of election fraud.

Lim and Querubin supposedly revealed the plan to then AFP chief of staff Gen. Generoso Senga and other service commanders, including Esperon.

The highest-ranking accused, now retired former Marines chief Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, and the other officers were implicated in the alleged mutiny after the Marine standoff on Feb. 26, 2006.

Esperon came face-to-face with the accused officers for the first time after ordering their detention three years ago, during the court martial hearing on Wednesday at Camp Aguinaldo, where he was called to the stand as a prosecution witness.

The prosecution repeatedly attempted to make him testify on several documents, including the purported "Diamond Statement."

But the court martial ruled, following objections from the defense camp, that Esperon could not testify on a document not previously marked during the pre-trial conference two years ago

The prosecution argued that in making the ruling, the court and the defense camp were committing "obstruction to evidence." This was opposed by the defense lawyers.

"Do not put the blame on us. It is your failure to comply with the procedures, which you have been given two years to do so," said Lim's counsel, Vicente Verdadero.

Submitting later to the ruling, the prosecution said that it would either tender excluded evidence or make a formal offer to the court to include the document and several others as evidence.

When asked by reporters later how he felt about seeing them after putting them in jail, Esperon said, "I don't know how I would describe it but this is exactly why I am facing them, to see how they might want to look at me."

"I believe that it is all part of my defense of democracy so it is not something hard to do to appear here," he said.

Meanwhile, Lim said Esperon merely testified on what he wanted to highlight in the case. "I would like to sit there on the witness stand and tell the truth," he told reporters.

He added that he and his fellow soldiers were the ones suffering for the crimes of the government.