Trillanes can’t attend Senate sessions – Court

By Ronron
July 30, 2007

A court in Makati City denied the plea of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to attend sessions at the Senate building in Pasay City, set up an office in his detention cell, accept staff members there, and grant media interviews.

In an 11-page order dated July 25, 2007 but released only Monday, Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 148 said granting the requests of Trillanes would be like treating him differently from other inmates.

Pimentel based his decision on the ruling of the Supreme Court in the case of former Zamboanga del Norte Congressman Romeo Jalosjos, a convicted child rapist, which goes in part: “Allowing accused-appellant to attend Congressional sessions and committee meetings for five days or more in a week will virtually make him a free man with all the privilege appurtenant to his position. Such an aberrant situation not only elevates accused-appellant’s status to that of a special class, it also would be a mockery of the purposes of the correction system.”

From the same ruling, Pimentel addressed the issue about the mandate that Trillanes got from more than 11 million Filipinos who elected him last May 14.

The pertinent part of the Jalosjos case ruling reads: “When the voters of his district elected the accused-appellant to Congress, they did so with full awareness of the limitation on his freedom of action. They did so with knowledge that he could achieve only such legislative results which he could accomplish within the confines of prison.”

As regards the other requests, Pimentel said the Supreme Court had in fact pointed out in the Jalosjos case ruling that it was wrong to allow the jailed lawmaker to hold an office at the New Bilibid Prison and accept visitors from among his constituents there.

“Being a detainee, accused-appellant should not even have been allowed by the prison authorities at the National Penitentiary to perform these acts,” Pimentel quoted the SC ruling to have stated.

He also pointed out that while the Marine Brig has recommended for allowing Trillanes to attend Senate sessions, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr., acting as the main custodian of the military, overruled it.

“While we have always professed non-obstruction, in any manner, of the election and the 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/detention facility as a measure to insulate the organization and its members from political partisanship,” Pimentel quoted Esperon’s comment.

Moreover, Pimentel said the access to media of Trillanes was already agreed upon by him, the court and the defense through a consensus that it will only be up this proclamation by the Commission on Election (Comelec).

Trillanes was proclaimed by the Comelec as the 11th winning Senator for the 14th Congress last June 15.

He is currently in jail due to his coup d’ etat case before Pimentel’s sala and another military case at the General Court Martial (violation of Articles of War 96 or conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman), both stemming from his lead participation in the July 2003 Oakwood Mutiny.

Trillanes has been deemed resigned from the organization when he filed his candidacy for the elective post in February of this year. He used to hold the rank of a Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade.

Reached for comment, Atty. Reynaldo Robles, lawyer of Trillanes, said they will file a motion for reconsideration on Pimentel’s ruling, believing that the judge is “fair.”

“I talked to him (Trillanes) and he considers it a temporary setback. He really wants to serve the people,” Robles said in a phone interview.

But Robles said Trillanes has already begun working as a Senator through his staff members, who visits him very often.

“He is not missing much because the Senate is still organizing itself,” Robles said. The Senate was formally opened last July 23.

Robles disclosed that in fact, just yesterday morning, Trillanes filed another bill that rewards restaurants if they donate their excess food to charities.

Esperon, for his part, would not admit that he is happy about the decision even if he is for it.

“What is important is it goes with my reasoning that he should not be allowed to leave because of his offense… I have always said that the election to office does not change the status of the respondent,” Esperon said.

While the military chief acknowledged the fact that the ruling will surely give Trillanes “a handicap in performing his duties,” the decision of the court should be respected.

“He himself and those who voted for him knows (that he will have this handicap),” Esperon said of Trillanes./DMS