Trillanes to Senate: Reconsider complaint of Miriam

By Ronron
December 3, 2007

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is appealing to the Senate to reconsider the complaint of Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago against him before the Senate Ethics Committee that could risk his seat in the Upper House of Congress.

Trillanes’ lawyer and chief of staff, Reynaldo Robles, said Monday that the Senators should find it enough already that Trillanes is facing additional charges before the civilian court because his action anyway last November 29 in Makati City had nothing to do with his job as a Senator.

Besides, Robles said, it was not the first time that a Senator had challenged the legitimacy of a government, citing, in particular, what Santiago did during the May 1, 2001 attempt to storm Malacañang and unseat President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“Senator Trillanes is just asking if the Senate could study deeper if a complaint against him at the Senate is really necessary because what he knows is this is not the first time that a Senator is involved in the same incident. Even Sen. Miriam was in the same situation during what we call now as EDSA III. Remember her Sugod Malakanyang (Attack Malacanang!) speech? ... In that incident, many people died, and there were properties damaged,” Robles said.

During the May 2001 incident, Santiago was still allied with deposed President Joseph Estrada. After Estrada’s arrest early that year following the filing of plunder charges against him, thousands of his supporters massed up at the EDSA-Ortigas intersection who later marched towards the direction of Malacañang.

Authorities then believed that the march of the unruly mass was triggered by the speeches of Santiago and other Estrada-allied politicians, prompting the filing of inciting to sedition charges against them. The case, however, did not prosper. Now, Santiago is already a known ally of Arroyo.

On Monday, Santiago filed a complaint against Trillanes for leading the takeover of the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City last November 29 and calling for the resignation of Arroyo.

Robles said Trillanes also appealed to Santiago, whom he places in high regard, to do away with name-calling. Robles said they read in some news article that Santiago called Trillanes as “pretending to be wise.”

“It doesn’t look good on Senators who resort to name-calling,” Robles quoted Trillanes to have said.

Meanwhile, Robles said Trillanes has asked the defense lawyers to work on the immediate release from detention of the civilians who were arrested together with them.

“His only request to us is for us to help the civilians that were arrested to be able to post bail because some of them are sick, and they are not used to staying in jail, unlike the Senator and Gen. Danilo Lim,” Robles said.

On Monday afternoon, the Department of Justice has approved the filing of rebellion charges against Trillanes, Lim, and 34 others, while their 15 other co-accused, who are all civilians, were ordered released for further investigation./DMS