MANILA -- Thirty Philippine soldiers cleared of joining a failed mutiny on July 27 were freed from detention on Tuesday as President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo called on troops to rally behind a campaign to reform the military.

Despite rumblings that discontent about pay and corruption is sowing the seeds of another uprising, the government insists the coup conspiracy is under control.

But lingering political uncertainties, combined with graft allegations made against Arroyo's husband Mike by an opposition senator, have hammered the country's currency, the peso, to its lowest level in 31 months and pushed out spreads on its bonds, Reuters reported.

The seemingly endless recriminations are also adding to the sense of policy paralysis ahead of an election next May.

Arroyo, who rose from vice-president when an army-backed popular revolt forced Joseph Estrada from the presidential palace in January 2001, says she will not run.

But a recent poll of 1,200 Filipinos by Pulse Asia put Arroyo just behind Senator Noli de Castro but ahead of former Education Secretary Raul Roco as the favored presidential candidate.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, who has accused Mike Arroyo of salting away about $3.5 million in bank accounts under false names, came in fourth. Movie star Ferdinand Poe was fifth. Only Roco and Lacson, a former national police chief who is himself facing allegations of collusion with drug and kidnapping gangs, have declared their intention to stand for president.

Arroyo said many soldiers suspected of joining last month's uprising were "misled, deceived and intimidated" by junior officers who led the siege at a luxury hotel in Manila's business district by more than 300 elite troops.

"The innocent shall be spared," she said in a statement.

The armed forces said that the 30 released soldiers were among 321 who faced coup charges after their names were found on a list recovered from a house believed to have been used by the plotters but that they did not actually take part in the mutiny. ------------Rallying the Troops-----------

The government is pointing at Gregorio Honasan, an opposition senator and former army colonel linked to several coup plots in the 1980s, as the instigator of an attempt to replace Arroyo's administration with a 15-man ruling junta.

Honasan denies any involvement in the ninth army revolt in 17 years and no formal charges have been filed.

Clearly concerned about a possible repeat of July 27, Arroyo and senior officials have been conducting a public relations exercise to thank members of the 113,000-strong armed forces for not joining the mutiny and assure them reforms are in the works.

The president has set up two independent panels to look into the grievances and allegations of high-level corruption made by the renegade soldiers. Two other task forces will set out reforms at the Defense Department, particularly in military procurement. "I would like the junior officers in the (armed forces) to be responsibly involved in this campaign by working closely with the institutions involved under a common spirit of change and renewal," Arroyo said.

But one newspaper columnist was skeptical that the country's culture of graft could ever be brought under control. "Corruption shows no sign of abating," Felipe Miranda wrote in the Philippine Star on Tuesday. "Too many people choose to keep silent when directly confronted by a corrupt situation."