MANILA, April 8 (Reuters) - A Philippine court sentenced two army captains to life in prison on Tuesday for leading a botched coup bid against President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2003, signalling a tougher stance against would-be seditionists.

Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati regional trial court also jailed seven young army officers for six to 12 years for their role in the dramatic takeover of a plush apartment block during the failed mutiny, one of many coup plots hatched in the Southeast Asian country.

Philippine governments have traditionally taken a soft line against military adventurists for fear of stirring up further trouble. But the spectacular failure of coup plot last November has emboldened the authorities to come down harder on rogue soldiers.

In November, a handful of soldiers, including a navy lieutenant on trial for the 2003 plot, broke out of court and holed up in a luxury hotel in Manila for around 7 hours demanding the overthrow of the government before elite SWAT troops flushed them out.

State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera said they were surprised by the sentence because his panel had recommended a much lower jail term for the soldiers accepting their guilt. The officers calmly accepted the verdict, he added.

"We hope they learned their lessons well," Arroyo's spokesman, Anthony Golez, told reporters.

"Those who committed crimes against the government and the Filipino people must pay the price for their anarchic actions."

Coup plots are common in the Philippines, where soldiers have been instrumental in the overthrow of two presidents, and there have been over a dozen attempts at sedition since Ferdinand Marcos was ousted in 1986.

Tuesday's sentencing came after the nine officers changed their pleas last week to guilty, surprising 22 other comrades, including the former navy lieutenant who was elected a senator in 2007 and who tried in vain to overthrow Arroyo again in November last year.

A lawyer defending the 22 said it was possible the soldiers had changed their plea to get executive clemency.

"There could be an arrangement that they will be pardoned. That's very unusual, that they will plead guilty to a capital offence," said defence lawyer Ernesto Francisco. (Reporting by Manny Mogato, editing by Carmel Crimmins and Michael Perry)

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