Trillanes destab plan was doomed to fail – PNP chief

By Ronron
December 1, 2007

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Avelino Razon, Jr. said Saturday that the destabilization plot of the group led by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim that materialized last Thursday was doomed to fail.

Razon said their follow up investigation on the November 29 takeover of the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City by Trillanes, Lim and other supporters was indeed planned, based on the document they got from one of the hotel rooms during clearing operations and other intelligence information.

Without citing details due to continuing operations, Razon said the D-Day for the destabilization move was supposed to be last Friday when several cause-oriented groups were scheduled to hold demonstrations to celebrate Bonifacio Day.

“What we know is it (march in Ayala Avenue,, Makati City) was supposed to be done on November 30. That is their original plan. Together with the protest actions of the different cause-oriented groups, the destabilizers will also take action,” Razon said in Filipino.

“But for some reasons, it seems it happened earlier. It was not in synch with the original plan,” he added.

But it can be assumed that Trillanes and Lim only have the chance to take part in the plan on November 29 because of the court hearing schedule in Makati City, where they were set to appear, the former as accused and the latter as a witness.

Trillanes is being tried along with 28 other Magdalo officers and two discharged soldiers at the Makati RTC Branch 148 for the crime of coup d’ etat over the Oakwood incident in July 2003.

Razon said they also learned that some urban poor residents from Tondo were being recruited to take part in the supposed plot in exchange for P200.

On the part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Razon quoted AFP chief of staff Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, Jr. to have said that the accused coup plotters detained at an Army camp in Tanay, Rizal were also supposed to take part in the activity by carrying out a jailbreak.

Razon said he is referring to the group of Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, who are being charged before the General Court Martial for their alleged power grab plot in February 2006.

“Based on the intelligence that we got, one of the components or groups that was supposed to join is the group from Tanay who will escape,” he said.

As to the politicians and financiers, Razon said they are assuming there are but the investigation is still ongoing for them to get a clearer picture.

“The document we recovered showed where they will go, the support they are getting. So we are following up these leads and we are looking for these groups, other three groups that we feel we have not yet accounted for,” he said.

Based on the document, Razon said they surmise that those who went to Manila Peninsula Hotel last Thursday is just one of the four groups mentioned.

“These groups are composed of different personalities. We cannot say that they are just pure soldiers,” he said, contradicting the claim of Esperon on Friday that the other groups refer to military men who are associated with Trillanes, and possibly with Miranda.

But assuming that there are supporters indeed from the military, Razon said the plot of Trillanes and Lim are still unlikely to succeed because the forces they mustered is not that strong, as well as their commitment.

“What is evident here is they don’t have the support of the masses, of the citizenry because what Lt. Trillanes did is very damaging to our country,” Razon said.

He said that’s why, when they noticed last Thursday that the mass support is not yet present, the police and military “immediately swam into action and took a decisive action so it will not drag on and allow the mustering of support.”

Esperon said that had the plot succeeded, it would be Lim and Trillanes who will be among the leaders of a transitional government that they were allegedly proposing.

“We recovered documents proclaiming a new government… Lim and Trillanes are among the leaders… Certainly, they were working for the formation of a new government,” he said.

But Esperon said that is actually a “junta” scenario if the plot succeeded, that is why he took pride in the decisive action taken by the police that quelled the takeover./END