Columns -
This Week With Nene Pimentel
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Sunday, 27 April 2008 00:10 |
Like Muslim rebel chieftain Nur Misuari, Senator and Magdalo leader (and
Senator) Antonio Trillanes should be granted bail and temporarily freed from
detention, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. said yesterday.
Senator Pimentel
said if Mr. Misuari was allowed to post bail by the Makati Regional Trial Court
in connection with rebellion charges against him, the more Senator Trillanes
should be entitled to the same privilege.
He noted that Mr. Misuari was charged with rebellion when he re-declared an
uprising and led armed fighters of the Moro National Liberation Front in a gun battle
with government troops in Sulu in November 2001, resulting in losses of lives
both sides.
In contrast, he said Senator Trillanes was one of the junior officers who led
disgruntled government soldiers belonging to the Magdalo group in the so-called
Oakwood Mutiny in Makati City on July 23, 2003
Senator Trillanes, along with Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, also led the bloodless
siege of Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati on Nov. 29, 2007.
“Why shouldn’t Mr. Trillanes be granted bail when nobody was killed during the
two incidents? In fact, there was no firefight,” Senator Pimentel said.
Prior to the grant of bail to Mr. Misuari, he was put under house arrest by the
Makati RTC.
He said the government’s persistent refusal to the bail petition of Senator Trillanes
only betrays its double standards of justice in dealing with political
dissenters.
He said the Magdalo soldiers staged the Oakwood mutiny to enable them to voice
their grievances, particularly the widespread corruption in the Armed Forces of
the Philippines.
Mr. Pimentel noted the testimonies of Sen. Rodolfo Biazon and former armed
forces chief, retired Gen. Narciso Abaya at last Friday’s court trial that tend
to disprove the allegations that the Magdalo soldiers had intended to grab
political power.Senator Pimentel said the grant of bail to Mr. Trillanes will enable him to perform
his duties as elected senator of the republic. Majority of senators had signed
a resolution last year urging the courts to allow Senator Trillanes to attend
Senate sessions and hearings while his case is being tried.
The case of Senator Trillanes was brought up before the committee on the human
rights of parliamentarians during the 118th general assembly of the
Inter-Parliamentary Union in Cape Town, South Africa on April 13-17.
The five-man committee, of which Senator Pimentel was a member representing the
Association of Southeast Asia +3, acted immediately by calling for additional
information from the Senate. This is without prejudice to a wider probe to be
conducted by the committee on the Trillanes case. # # #
where nobody was killed. After a
negotiation, the renegade troops surrendered without firing a single shot.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 27 April 2008 00:11 |