Trillanes can’t attend sessions
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV will not be able to attend sessions and other activities at the Senate after the judge hearing the coup d’etat case against him denied yesterday his motion to leave his cell at the Marine stockade in
In ruling against Trillanes, Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 said he agreed with state prosecutors that permitting Trillanes to go to the Senate “partakes of special privilege and preferential treatment.”
Pimentel also rejected the request of Trillanes that he be allowed to meet his Senate staff at his place of detention, and to give interviews to the media.
“The Court not having been persuaded by the reasons given by the accused Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, and for lack of merit, all his requests are hereby denied,” read the court’s order.
“That the prosecution, the defense and the court have already reached a consensus last June 7, 2004 that media access to Trillanes should cease after his proclamation by the Comelec.”
Reynaldo Robles, the lawyer of Trillanes, also asked the court to allow the setting up of a working area at his client’s place of detention at the Marine stockade, where a personal computer and appropriate communications equipment like a telephone line and Internet access, can be installed so Trillanes may be able to work when there are no sessions, meetings or hearings at the Senate.
However, Pimentel said the Marine stockade is a high security military detention facility, not a civilian government office where Senate staff and assistants (who are not detention prisoners) can come and go, or hold office.
“Being a Marine facility, it is likewise doubtful if telephone communications and working furniture can be so casually arranged for just one detention prisoner and not for other detention prisoners,” read the court’s order.
On the other hand, the camp of Trillanes accused state prosecutors of practicing “double standards,” since former governor Nur Misuari of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, who is facing charges of rebellion, was allowed to go to Sulu and
“Comparing to the case of former ARMM governor Nur Misuari who is under house arrest in New Manila, the latter was allowed to go to
“The double standards being practiced by the DOJ prosecutors in the handling of the motions or requests of the accused similarly charged with non-bailable offense is so clear and apparent that their opposition in this case do not command or carry any credibility at all.”
However, Pimentel said: “The invocation of Misuari’s case is all in vain since none of the state prosecutors are privy to that case, and that Trillanes has no personal knowledge of the facts and circumstances surrounding that case.”
Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. has turned down a recommendation to allow Trillanes to attend Senate sessions.
“While we have professed non-obstruction, in any manner, of the election and actual performance by him of his duties in accordance with his popular mandate, we cannot, however, allow a political office to be established inside a military installation as a measure to insulate the organization and its members from political partisanship,” Esperon said.
“Without prejudice to any opposition interposed by the prosecution, through the DOJ, we firmly believe that this position is in keeping with the spirit and intent to uphold the apolitical nature of the Armed Forces as mandated by our fundamental law.”
He has always been opposed to allowing Trillanes to set up any political office inside a military camp, he added.
Esperon said Trillanes himself knew beforehand that getting elected to a public office does not end his status as a respondent in a criminal case.
“The court has spoken, let us respect that,” he said.
Esperon said the court’s decision would simply mean another handicap for Trillanes to be able to perform his duties and responsibilities as a senator.
“The bottom line here is there is a court decision,” he said.
Trillanes is also facing trial before a military court for violating the Articles of War for his part in the failed military uprising in July 2003. — with Jaime Laude
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