IN DENIAL: TRILLANES REFUSES TO PARTICIPATE FURTHER IN MUTINY TRIAL
MANILA, MARCH 7, 2008 (STAR) By Michael Punongbayan - Detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV will no longer take part in his coup d’etat trial before a Makati court and has refused to enter a plea during his arraignment for rebellion before another Makati court.In a written statement handed to reporters, the former Navy officer said his trial for alleged involvement in the failed July 2003 Oakwood mutiny has become a “travesty of justice.”
“(The administration) has lost all moral authority to render any judgment over me and my companions,” he said.
“Today, I refuse to participate any further in this travesty of justice.”
After their coup d’etat trial, Trillanes, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, and 16 other accused soldiers walked a few steps to the courtroom of Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 for their arraignment on charges of rebellion for their alleged participation in the November 2007 takeover of the Peninsula Manila hotel in Makati.
Both courtrooms are on the 14th floor of the Makati City Hall.
Trillanes, Lim and their co-accused refused to enter a plea, which prompted the court to enter a plea of “not guilty” on their behalf.
The next hearing was set on April 26.
Defense lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. said his clients and Lim were one in their decision not to enter a plea because they will question before the Court of Appeals the filing of rebellion charges against them and ask the CA to stop the trial.
The petition for certiorari that they will be filing would be based on the argument that the Peninsula incident was not a rebellion under existing jurisprudence, he added.
That is why police initially charged Trillanes, Lim and the Magdalo soldiers with inciting to sedition, Francisco said.
During the coup d’etat trial before Judge Oscar Pimentel of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148, retired Armed Forces chief Roy Cimatu, a defense witness, confirmed that the government struck a deal with Trillanes and his group to end the Oakwood mutiny peacefully.
Cimatu told the court the government sent him to find a peaceful solution and avoid bloodshed.
For the first two hours, he listened to grievances of the mutineers, he added.
Cimatu said under the agreement, only Trillanes, Lt. James Layug, Captains Gary Alejano, Milo Maestrecampo and Gerardo Gambala, the core leaders, will “face the consequences.”
The other mutineers would “simply be admonished,” he added.
Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon said the deal did not bar the government from filing charges against Trillanes and his group before a civilian court.
On the other hand, Francisco said the agreement was clear that no criminal charges would be filed in a civilian court against Trillanes and his group.
“Under the Revised Penal Code, the Oakwood incident was not even a coup,” he said.
Trillanes said he was supposed to testify at the coup d’etat trial as a defense witness.
“After much reflection, I decided to forgo my testimony and write this letter instead,” he said.
Trillanes said on July 27, 2003, he and some 300 military officers and men “spoke the truth,” and that no person was harmed, no property was damaged, and not a single shot was fired.
“Yet, after almost five years in detention, we still stand accused of committing a crime that could have us incarcerated for life,” he said.
“Is this just? No. Did I ever regret my actions? No. Now, the prosecutors have allowed themselves to be used as instruments to further this injustice.”
Trillanes said Pimentel might be pressured into convicting them.
“But everyone in this courtroom knows, deep in their hearts, that we are not criminals and definitely not a menace to society.
“On the contrary, we, the accused, have rendered faithful service to our Motherland; we have lived by the ideals that our alma mater, the Philippine Military Academy, has taught us – courage, integrity and loyalty.
“The physical and moral courage to stand up against what is wrong and to fight for what is right; the integrity to resist the lure and trappings of power and wealth; and the unbending loyalty to God, Country and People.”
Trillanes said the “truth” they spoke of five years ago at Oakwood has been validated time and again through the “despicable revelations of crime and corruption” in the administration.
“Why are we in prison when, through the recent elections, the Filipino people have affirmed the justness of our cause?” he asked.
Trillanes said in “my search for the answers to these questions, I came across Henry David Thoreau’s essay on civil disobedience. And I read that, ‘Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison’,” he said, quoting Thoreau’s essay.
“Do your worst, for we have already been acquitted by the people,” he said.
On the other hand, Fadullon said the job of government prosecutors is not to decide whether Trillanes and his group spoke the truth at Oakwood.
“We will not allow ourselves to be used by anyone,” he said.
“We are not stopping them from airing their grievances. We are doing this because there is an existing law.
“Make no mistake about it, we recognize their courage, we recognize the good service they have done to the country.
“But why is it that some said yes, nagkamali kami? The problem is that the senator is in denial.”
Fadullon said Trillanes has failed to realize that the votes he got as senator were not in support of what they did at Oakwood, but a vote against the administration.
“Don’t mix politics with the law,” he said.
“Let the law take its course, take your politics somewhere else. Live up to the challenge. 11 million votes don’t mean you can do whatever you want.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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