‘THIRD FORCE’ SUSPECTED BEHIND ‘OPLAN GREENBASE’ DOCUMENT. A "third force" made up of individuals and groups opposed to a peace settlement with Muslim rebels may be behind a document purportedly outlining a secret plan by the Arroyo administration to impose martial law, a top military official told an inquiry yesterday.
Testifying before the Feliciano Commission, Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, the military’s vice chief of staff, said, however, he does not know the identities of these "people who may have another agenda as opposed" to the upcoming peace talks between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). He said Cotabato City Archbishop Orlando Quevedo had once warned about a "group of desperate people" out to torpedo the peace talks. Quevedo was not immediately available for comment. One of these individuals "could be a politician who is anti-Muslim, who sees that peace does not work for him, whose biases against Muslims are very strong," Garcia said.
Source: Philippine Star, 20 August 2003
GOLEZ: TRILLANES JOB WAS TO SPRING ESTRADA. National Security Adviser Roilo Golez said that Navy lieutenant senior grade Antonio Trillanes was in charge of springing jailed ex-President Joseph Estrada from the Veterans Memorial Hospital.
The rogue soldiers who participated in the July 27 failed coup were organized into 17 task groups in a wide-ranging operation aimed at taking over vital installations and military camps, according to National Security Adviser Roilo Golez. Trillanes, the spokesperson of the group of junior officers who laid siege to the Oakwood Premier on July 27, was the leader of Task Group 17 which was in charge of logistics, Golez told the Bulong-Pulungan forum at the Westin Plaza hotel yesterday. Task Group 17 was also in charge of springing jailed ex-President Joseph Estrada from the Veterans Medical Memorial Hospital, Golez said.
He said Estrada was important for the funding of the coup. The ousted president's supporters could also be used as "civilian support,'' he said. Asked if Estrada knew of the plot, Golez said he had no information about that.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Tuesday said the rebellious officers should be tried in both military and civil courts to ensure a comprehensive and holistic approach in attacking the root causes of military adventurism and disenchantment. She said the investigation of irregularities in the defense and military establishments, particularly in the procurement of military supplies and the lifestyle check on top officials, would continue as part of the "relentless clean-up'' of the military.
The lawyer of the mutinous junior officers meanwhile said that the Oakwood siege was not a "spontaneous" event but a carefully planned final stand by the leaders who claimed that they were being hunted down by those who wanted them killed. Pulido said it was a plot but "not a coup plot."
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 20 August 2003
CORPUS ON HONASAN DENIAL: HE’S LYING. The former chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, yesterday called opposition Sen. Gregorio Honasan "a liar" in denying involvement in a supposed coup plot against President Arroyo.
He said the "inaccessible" Honasan was lying through his teeth when he denied involvement in the July 27 mutiny. The mutiny supposedly highlighted the coup plot named "Campaign Plan: Andres," where Kuya (elder brother), the supposed code name for Honasan, would be installed as the head of a 15-member junta. He pointed out the documents pertaining to "Andres" were among evidence seized by the military from the rebel officers and soldiers who staged the July 27 mutiny at the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center in Makati City. "Honasan was included in the (plan Andres) and his name was part of the master list confiscated from the junior officers," Corpus said. He claimed Honasan has resorted to issuing denial because the government had gathered enough evidence linking him to the mutiny.
Like Honasan, Corpus claimed the spokesman of the July 27 mutineers, Navy Lt. (sg) Antonio Trillanes IV, is finding it difficult to prove that their action was a spontaneous activity. Corpus noted Trillanes made several statements but was not able to prove that the mutiny was only a one-day affair. "Honasan is lying... and so is Trillanes," Corpus said in Filipino. Corpus said Honasan should now resurface and face the accusations squarely.
Source: Philippine Star, 18 August 2003
ARROYO ACCUSES HONASAN OF INVOLVEMENT IN MUTINY. President Arroyo virtually accused Sen. Gregorio Honasan yesterday of taking part in the failed mutiny of junior military officers last July 27.
"Senator Honasan should come out and defend himself openly. His companions are already rendering testimony in full view and hearing of the public and it does not speak well of a senator to be hiding from justice, as well as the scrutiny of his own peers," the President said. However, Honasan said he will keep himself "inaccessible" to authorities for fear that he might get the same treatment given former senior deputy executive secretary Ramon Cardenas. In an interview over radio station dzRH, Honasan said Cardenas, who served in the Estrada administration, was shown on television in handcuffs and wearing a yellow detainee’s T-shirt after being arrested without a warrant from a competent court.
But Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government assures Honasan that his rights as an accused would be guaranteed and protected, and that he would be "treated accordingly" with his stature as a senator of the Republic. Bunye said Honasan should face the accusations against him now while the case is still at the preliminary investigation stage at the Department of Justice. Bunye said the police are not searching for Honasan because no warrant for his arrest has yet been issued by a competent court.
Meanwhile, Bunye rejected yesterday Honasan’s claims that two incriminating photographs showing him with mutinous junior military officers had been altered to implicate him in the failed military uprising. Presidential Security Group commander Col. Delfin Bangit was forced to show reporters the two photographs to rebut the testimony of Navy Lt. SG Antonio Trillanes IV before the Feliciano Commission yesterday that Honasan had not taken part in a supposed "blood compact" with rebel military officers, he added.
Source: Philippine Star, 15 August 2003
‘LARGE-SCALE RECRUITMENT’ OF URBAN POOR BARED. The mutiny of July 27 also involved the "large-scale recruitment" of urban poor residents to back the renegade soldiers, the director-general of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica) said Thursday.
Testifying before the Feliciano Commission, Nica chief Cesar Garcia also said the mutiny staged by the Magdalo group was "part of a larger conspiracy" to topple the government and install a 15-man military junta. He said there were still "military elements to be accounted for" and "civilian components still out there."
Reynaldo Wycoco, director of the National Bureau of Investigation, told the commission that the NBI was checking other "staging points" used by the renegade soldiers. Wycoco said it was not possible for the 321 mutineers who assembled at Oakwood to have come from just two houses. He was referring to the houses of Estrada's mistress Laarni Enriquez and of Estrada's former deputy executive secretary Ramon Cardenas, where government agents found equipment and personal effects allegedly belonging to the renegades. Garcia, a retired brigadier general, said he was part of the "special monitoring committee" also composed of the intelligence chiefs of the military and police that discussed and reported the coup plot to Malacanang. He said the People's Movement Against Poverty and a group called Demokrasya, as well as some members of the Guardians, a fraternity of active and retired members of the military and police, were mobilized to support the rebel soldiers.
But he did not say who were behind the recruitment. In response to a question by commission member Fr. Joaquin Bernas, he said the names of these persons were "classified secret." Garcia said the supposed plot also involved springing ousted President Joseph Estrada from detention at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City and taking over television and radio stations. Garcia said the supposed plot was to have taken place after the President's State of the Nation Address on July 28. Garcia was careful not to tag anyone as the mastermind of the supposed plot.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 15 August 2003
SENATORS SCOLD MUTINEERS FOR OUTBURSTS, DISRESPECT. In their first appearance before senators probing the July 27 mutiny, the five mutiny leaders seized the opportunity to air their grievances in full, painting a stark picture of corruption in the military.
But the daylong hearing also took their toll on the junior officers, with some senators scolding the mutineers for outbursts during their testimony and for their refusal to answer key questions. Navy Lieutenant (s.g.) Antonio Trillanes IV and Army Captain Gerardo Gambala said they had acquired two documents detailing an illegal government operation code-named "Operation Green Base." But opposition Senator Rodolfo Biazon got the officers to admit that the two documents were not actually an operation plan.
Gambala said the mutiny was merely a "protest action to air what is the truth." But Senate President Franklin Drilon, chairing the hearing of the Senate convened as a committee of the whole, took strong exception to the officer's claim. Trillanes said his group considered "most of the generals of the AFP to be corrupt, and therefore they are the enemy." But Drilon, leader of the administration coalition in the Senate, reprimanded him for casting broad aspersions. "We can prove that," Trillanes replied.
Captain Gary Alejano, a former member of President Macapagal-Arroyo's security detail, said he could have killed the President during a provincial sortie if he had wanted to, but said his group did not want to kill her. He said this to prove that an assassination was not part of the group's plans. The officers insisted that the Senate probe deal with alleged military and government corruption, but their insistence tested the patience of the senators.
Some of the officers went so far as to compare their 20-hour armed takeover of the Oakwood hotel in Makati City to street protests by leftist activists, with Gambala calling it a "protest action." But Drilon reminded the mutineers that their use of firearms and explosives to back up demands that the President and other top officials step down took their action beyond the bounds of legal protest. Trillanes, acknowledged as the chief spokesperson for the mutineers, said the sole objective of the armed takeover was "to tell the people (about) the anomalies in this government and the Armed Forces."
The aborted mutiny was to protest alleged misdeeds by members of government, the junior officers testified. "We consider most of the generals of the AFP to be corrupt," Trillanes said, adding that his group could prove the claim. But opposition Senator Aquilino Pimentel told the junior officers: "At this point you have no hard evidence that any of your group have pointed out to establish the veracity" of the accusations against the government.
Trillanes blew his top after senators asked him to explain his supposed questionable wealth and his motives behind the July 27 military rebellion. When De Castro asked him why the FYI polling and consultancy firm he was an incorporator of bought five Delica vans from him, Trillanes said the senator got his facts wrong. He said it was the other way around; it was FYI which sold the vehicles to his mother. Trillanes admitted that the vehicles were under his name, prompting De Castro to ask him why this was so. Trillanes said there was a reason for this, but noted that his "mother might be incriminated but it's in relation to a loan she got late 2000." Pressed again by De Castro to explain, Trillanes said: "Well, if she had defaulted on the loan payments, my mother was concerned that the vehicles should not be taken away." Pressed by De Castro, Trillanes said, "I'm not sure about the wisdom behind it, sir." "Anong wisdom dito? It was your mother who took out a loan, and the vehicles were under your name," De Castro said. This remark prompted Trillanes to shoot back: "I think you're implying something. I didn't steal anything from the government, if you're implying that, sir."
Drilon tried to restore order, but as De Castro and Trillanes continued to exchange words, the latter's microphone was switched off. De Castro made it clear that he was not implying anything, even as he pressed the officer for an explanation. "In that case I invoke my right to remain silent on that question," Trillanes said, ending the exchange. All the officers insisted that their mutiny was a spontaneous action that followed threats of violence and arrest brought against them.
Administration Senator Robert Jaworski said, however, that if all the disgruntled people in the Philippines take up arms outside of the law, "this country is going to disintegrate." At one point, Drilon had to admonish Trillanes after the officer raised his voice and pleaded that the issue at hand was corruption in the government and the AFP and nothing else.
"The AFP is corrupt, the government is corrupt. That's it, lets focus on that," a frustrated Trillanes told the senators, in response to a query of administration Senator Manuel Villar Jr., on whether his group acted on their own. Trillanes' remarks drew Drilon's ire. The Senate president asked him "not to dictate on the queries that the senators place on you."
In another verbal tussle, administration Senator Joker Arroyo pressed Trillanes on the group's motive behind the July 27 uprising. Trillanes reminded Arroyo that the latter himself walked out during the impeachment trial of President Joseph Estrada in 2001. Arroyo corrected Trillanes, saying he and fellow government prosecutors in the trial did not walk out; it was the private lawyers who did. Arroyo then challenged Trillanes to resign so his group could air their grievances. But Trillanes replied that resigning would be the "easiest way out and would not solve the problems" in the military.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 15 August 2003
‘GREENBASE’ PAPERS SET OFF JULY 27 MUTINY. Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV and Army Captain Gerardo Gambala told the Senate Thursday that two classified documents pushed their group of disgruntled military officers to launch their mutiny last July 27.
The documents allegedly detailed an illegal government operation code-named "Operation Green Base," to mount bombings in Mindanao and then blame these on the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, also testifying before the Senate convened as a "committee of the whole," said the documents were fake.
Later in the daylong hearing, opposition Senator Rodolfo Biazon, a former Armed Forces chief of staff, succeeded in getting the officers to agree with him that the documents did not amount to an operation plan. Trillanes said he acquired both documents from secret sources. He said one was a memorandum of instructions from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approving the alleged plan and naming Eduardo Ermita, presidential adviser on the peace process, as the official in charge. He said the second was a document instructing Ermita to the put plan in operation.
Trillanes and Gambala said their possession of the documents prompted the government to hunt them down, in turn triggering their decision to mutiny. Gambala told the senators that the government was after them, initially Trillanes, because of the documents. "If you have that kind of evidence, you can be picked up," he said.
Under questioning from Biazon, the Gambala and Trillanes admitted that neither of the two documents contained the elements that characterized an operation plan. Biazon identified the components of an "oplan" as situation, mission, execution, logistics, and communication. When he asked the two officers whether any of the documents contained these components, they said no.
Captain Milo Maestrecampo repeated at the Senate Thursday the testimony he had given at an independent fact-finding commission on Wednesday, that a superior officer had instructed him to form a special operations team to bomb a mosque in Davao City in the aftermath of the bombing of the city's Sasa wharf in April, which left several people dead and many others injured.
The head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Eduardo Matillano said Reyes and Brigadier General Victor Corpus, former chief of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP), could not have been involved in the Davao bombings. Matillano told the Inquirer that when his office investigated the bombing incidents at the Davao International Airport and in Sasa wharf, the names of Reyes and Corpus never surfaced. Matillano also said the Green Base papers were fake, noting that Ermita had denied signing any such document.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 15 August 2003
GRINGO WANTS MORE TIME TO ANSWER COUP RAPS. Wanted Sen. Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan on Sunday said he will face the coup charges filed against him by the government but he wants more time to put up his legal defense.
From his hiding place, Honasan said his lawyers should be given the chance to get the "official statements" of his "other co-accused" in the alleged plot to overthrow the government as part of his defense. In a phone interview, Honasan denied the allegations of the government's star witness, Maj. Perfecto Ragil, that the senator was the leader of the mutinous soldiers.
Ragil, in a sworn statement, said he attended a secret meeting in a San Juan, Metro Manila, house on June 4 where Honasan talked about the plot to overthrow the government and oust the President. Ragil said Honasan made threats against him at the meeting when he engaged the senator in a debate on corruption. Later, Ragil said, Honasan led the young officers present in a blood compact to seal their bond. He called Ragil's claims "illogical" and "defying reason."
Honasan also wondered why the government was giving weight to the testimony of Ragil alone. He said two other co-accused in the coup charges, Col. Virgilio Briones (ret.) and Col. Romeo Lazo (ret.), both with the Philippine Guardians Brotherhood Inc., had already stated that he (Honasan) had not instructed them to form the "civilian component" of the supposed coup attempt.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 11 August 2003
PALACE: STATE OF REBELLION LIFTED WHEN CIVILIANS INVOLVED ARE ACCOUNTED FOR. The country will remain under a state of rebellion until all civilians involved in the July 27 coup attempt have been unmasked and charged before the courts, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said yesterday.
Bunye stressed the government could not afford to be complacent until all "residual threats" have been neutralized and eliminated. He also pointed out that the government cannot afford to drop its guard particularly in the face of renewed threats of terrorism following the bombing in Jakarta last week. Bunye said law enforcement authorities are discussing the possibility of raising the level of alertness in defending "soft targets" such as shopping malls, airports and other crowded areas.
Various sectors joined some legislators and the business community in calling for Mrs. Arroyo to lift the state of rebellion on fears of its adverse effects on the economy and curtailment of civil rights. Even after declaring the coup against her administration already over, Mrs. Arroyo said the state of rebellion will stay as a "mantle of protection" of the people as they go on with their normal activities. Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara said the country is placed in a "legal fiction" with the declaration of a state of rebellion.
Angara announced that the Senate committee on constitutional amendments, which he chairs, will conduct hearings to determine its legal basis and the extent of powers given to the Chief Executive. On the issue of Malacanang reneging on its agreement with the mutineers, an administration lawmaker said the government has no choice but to file charges before the civilian courts. According to Deputy Speaker Raul Gonzalez, any agreement, however well meaning, could be void if it violates the law.
Source: Philippine Star, 11 August 2003
9 MORE MUTINY SUSPECTS DETAINED. DAVAO CITY — The military has detained nine more junior military officers suspected of involvement in the July 27 mutiny at the Oakwood Premier luxury apartments in Makati City.
The officers, all captains and lieutenants, were separately picked up from units assigned to military commands in Cavite, Capiz and Cebu. The sources said military officers who were earlier interrogated by the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) implicated the detained officers as active participants in the mutiny but the sources refused to elaborate.
At least 321 soldiers are facing charges for their alleged involvement in the failed July 27 mutiny but government and military lawyers are still debating how to go about pursuing the cases against them. Some lawyers feel the soldiers should be tried for mutiny before courts-martial but others insist on prosecuting them before civilian courts for coup d’état, a new crime that practically has no jurisprudence to support it. Other lawyers feel charging the soldiers simultaneously before civilian and military courts for the same crime could result in the release of the soldiers on the principle of double jeopardy. But Palace officials assured that the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines Judge Advocate General’s Office (AFP-JAGO), which are handling the coup d’état and mutiny charges respectively, are forging a "road map" to ensure the case will flourish.
The government has also filed rebellion charges against at least four civilians who are suspected of having aided and abetted the mutiny and the mutineers. First to be charged was former deputy executive secretary Ramon Cardenas in whose house was found evidence showing that he had knowledge and may have even supported the mutiny. Opposition Sen. Gregorio Honasan was also accused of coup d’état before the DOJ, which is conducting a preliminary investigation. Also charged was former movie star Laarni Enriquez, one of the mistresses of jailed former President Joseph Estrada.
Source: Philippine Star, 11 August 2003
PALACE: RP STILL UNDER REBELLION. For the nth time, Malacanang defended yesterday President Arroyo’s declaration of a state of rebellion.
In a news conference at the Palace, National Security Adviser Roilo Golez and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye justified its continued implementation to better deal with "residual threats." Even if Mrs. Arroyo had declared earlier that everything is under control and "back to usual business," Bunye said there are some elements (of the coup plotters) "that have still to be accounted for."
Golez, for his part, confirmed the presence of "residual threats that have to be accounted for" but refused to say if he was the one who recommended the continued implementation of the state of rebellion. While declaring the coup over, Mrs. Arroyo said the state of rebellion will stay as a "mantle of protection" of the people as they go on with their normal activities. Other sectors contested the legality of the state of rebellion before the Supreme Court.
Source: Philippine Star, 8 August 2003
GMA WANTS MAXIMUM PENALTY FOR JULY 27 MUTINEERS. President Arroyo said yesterday she will push for the "maximum penalty" for those who planned, led and carried out the alleged coup attempt against her administration last July 27.
The President said she was for "total justice based on due process" as officials said dozens more rebel soldiers and civilian conspirators involved in the plot will be prosecuted. Senior figures in the alleged plot could face life imprisonment if found guilty. Mrs. Arroyo, however, assured the people that the government is prepared to deal with "greater understanding" for the mutineers "who are proven to have been simply deceived or misled" by the leaders of the failed coup attempt.
This statement is a clear departure from those the President issued during the past several days, when she vowed to bring down the full force of the law on the mutineers, a move recommended by the defunct Davide Commission, which investigated the failed coup attempts against former President Corazon Aquino. Mrs. Arroyo also reiterated her guarantee of "due process" for the 321 mutineers led by Navy Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV, who will undergo court-martial proceedings as well as face charges of coup d’etat, a crime stated under a special law in Article 134-A of the Revised Penal Code, filed against them before the Makati Regional Trial Court.
Source: Philippine Star, 8 August 2003
‘GRINGO BOYS’ SURRENDER TO DND CHIEF. Two senior leaders of the Philippine Guardians Brotherhood Inc. (PGBI) closely identified with opposition Sen. Gregorio Honasan voluntarily surrendered yesterday after they were linked to the failed mutiny last July 27.
Retired military colonels Romeo Lazo and Virgilio Briones, along with some of their men, presented themselves before Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes at Camp Aguinaldo to deny their involvement in the failed military uprising. Lazo and Briones are the second batch of former military officials close to Honasan to deny their involvement in the mutiny.
Source: Philippine Star, 8 August 2003
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUMMONS HONASAN. The Government on Thursday vowed to stamp out military rebellions once and for all as the justice department issued subpoenas against opposition Senator Gregorio "Gringo'' Honasan and six others who were charged with coup d'etat for the takeover of Oakwood Premier Hotel in Makati by mutinous soldiers on July 27.
Honasan and the other respondents will have 10 days to file their counter-affidavits, said Justice Undersecretary Merceditas Gutierrez. President Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday reiterated that there would be no leniency for the coup plotters and their civilian backers, but due process would be observed. She said the failure to punish past mutineers was the reason for the persistence of military adventurism.
The President said that the secondary aim of the mutineers -- should the main one to topple her government fail -- was to weaken the national leadership. Gutierrez said that unlike the conspirators in previous coup attempts, those responsible for the Oakwood mutiny would be penalized because the crime of coup d'etat was now included in the Penal Code. The crime of coup d'etat went into the law statutes after the 1989 bloody coup that Honasan mounted against the Aquino administration. The Davide Commission, which investigated that coup, had recommended that the plotters be given stiff penalties but the recommendation was not followed.
Gutierrez said Honasan and the other respondents are expected to present themselves before state prosecutors when the preliminary investigation starts at 2 p.m. on Aug. 18.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 8 August 2003
MUTINEERS USED HIGH-TECH FIREARMS GIVEN BY U.S. The military officers who staged a mutiny on July 27 were armed with high-powered firearms provided by the US government during an antiterror training in 2001, officials said Thursday.
The firearms seized from the rebels after the short-lived mutiny included Robar and Barrett sniper rifles, according to Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero, public information officer of the Armed Forces. The US military issued the Robar sniper rifles to members of the Light Reaction Company (LRC) while training them in antiterrorism at Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija, in the second quarter of 2001, he said.
Citing a military report, Lucero said that two days before the mutiny, 11 members of a sniper class, including two officers, slipped out of their training area in Fort Magsaysay, bringing with them three Robar sniper rifles and four Barrett rifles. He declined to say if the snipers joined the mutineers at Oakwood. The Barrett rifle is designed to provide commanders the option of employing snipers with an anti-materiel weapon to augment the anti-personnel M40A1 7.62mm weapon, according to documents accessed from globalsecurity.org.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 8 August 2003
NO SUCH ANIMAL AS STATE OF REBELLION: LAWYERS. Lawyers in and out of government told a Senate committee hearing Thursday that there was "no such legal animal" as a state of rebellion and that President Macapagal-Arroyo may have violated the Constitution in making such a declaration in the wake of the failed July 27 coup.
They said the President's emergency powers to quell a rebellion emanate from her powers as the Commander in Chief but these did not grant her extra powers to declare a state of rebellion. A former senator, Juan Ponce Enrile, accused the President of declaring a state of rebellion to "immobilize the political opposition." Senator Aquilino Pimentel described the state of rebellion proclamation as martial law without the name.
Senate President Franklin Drilon came to the defense of the President, saying that she was just stating a "description of the state of things at this point, that a state of rebellion exists." "The proclamation itself simply says she is calling on the Armed Forces to quell the rebellion. That is within her powers under the Constitution," Drilon told reporters, reiterating that such a declaration doesn't add any power to the President nor does it suppress civil liberties.
Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Paras, who also testified at the hearing, said the President's proclamation did not curtail civil liberties, such as allowing the warrantless arrest of people. Retired Supreme Court Justice Santiago Kapunan said he was not saying that the President was unfaithful to the Constitution but that there was a "misapplication or misinterpretation of the provision of the Constitution, especially involving civil liberties." Emil Ong of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines said the lawyers' group has yet to formulate a position on it but it supported the "intentions of the President" in the action she took.
Source: Philippines Daily Inquirer, 8 August 2003
MALACANANG GIVES UP BID TO STOP CONGRESS MUTINY INQUIRY. President Arroyo has given up efforts to stop congressional inquiries into the failed July 27 mutiny after both the Senate and the House of Representatives decided to conduct their own separate probes.
Mrs. Arroyo earlier said a congressional probe might muddle the investigation, expected to open today, that will be conducted by an independent six-member commission (not seven as earlier reported) that she had formed. Politicians might also use the inquiries for political grandstanding, she warned. The commission will temporarily hold hearings at the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas main office in Pasay City, Mrs. Arroyo’s spokesman, Ignacio Bunye said.
Yesterday, Mrs. Arroyo swore into the panel Carolina Hernandez, political science professor at the University of the Philippines; Roman Catholic priest Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a former member of the commission that framed the 1987 Constitution; and Commodore Rex Robles, a former military rebel. They join former Supreme Court justice Florentino Florencio, who will head the investigation, and Minerva Reyes, also a retired Supreme Court justice, and former Air Force captain Roland Narciso. Narciso actually replaced a member of the commission, Army Capt. Rex Banjo Bumanlag, Mrs. Arroyo clarified yesterday. Bumanlag and Narciso are members of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1995. Some of the officers who participated in the mutiny were also their classmates. Phil. Star, 08/06/2003
8 MUTINY LEADERS SUMMONED TO SENATE INQUIRY. The Senate summoned eight leaders of the failed July 27 coup attempt yesterday to its next hearing on the mutiny on Friday.
Senate President Franklin Drilon directed Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya to produce the eight or risk being cited for contempt. Those asked to be brought to the hearing were Lt. Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV, Lt. Senior Grade Eugene Louie Gonzales, Lt. Senior Grade James Layug, Capt. Garry Alejano, Capt. Milo Maestrecampo, Capt. Gerardo Gambala, Maj. Antonio Villamin, and Capt. Fermin Mabolo. "We will hear their grievances on alleged corruption, inequality and abuse of privileges in the Department of National Defense and the Armed Forces," Drilon said. He said Friday’s hearing will be a public session unless President Arroyo requests in writing that it be held behind closed doors and certifies that the young officers’ grievances could pose a threat to national security. Opposition Sen. Edgardo Angara said since Mrs. Arroyo herself announced over the weekend that the failed coup was over, there should be no impediment to the appearance of the officers before the Senate to fully air their complaints.
He said allowing the soldiers to tell the nation their grievances could perhaps defuse whatever tension that remains following their mutiny. National Security Adviser Roilo Golez has asked the Senate to conduct its inquiry at Camp Aguinaldo because the military fears that Trillanes and his colleagues might be assassinated by their own followers if they are brought out of the camp, to prevent them from speaking up.
Source: Philippine Star, 6 August 2003
ALLEGATIONS AGAINST REYES MISPLACED SAYS MUTINY PROBE PANEL MEMBER. A former military rebel and member of the independent fact-finding commission looking into the failed July 27 military mutiny has branded as "misplaced" allegations that Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes sold guns and ammunition to rebels in Mindanao.
"It seems (that the allegations against Reyes) are misplaced," said retired Navy Commodore Rex Robles, who took part in a series of failed but bloody coups against President Corazon Aquino. Meanwhile, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte debunked yesterday the allegations of mutinous junior military officers that Reyes and resigned military intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus masterminded the bombings at Davao International Airport and Sasa Wharf in Davao City earlier this year.
But Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said yesterday the sacking of Reyes will not weaken but instead strengthen the Arroyo administration. If Reyes would step down, restless junior military officers would be pacified, he added. Robles said Reyes had "no direct responsibility" over accusations that the Armed Forces has been selling firearms and ammunition to rebels in Mindanao. Robles expressed bewilderment over the demand of mutinous junior officers for Reyes to quit his Cabinet post, while not calling for the resignation of Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya, who is the "second in command" of the commander-in-chief.
Robles said the "commanding officers" of military units could have done something about the matter, which has long been plaguing the military. Robles said the massive selling of weapons and ammunition is "not profitable" as these are usually sold at "a low price" to attract buyers. However, Robles said Reyes will have to answer accusations of corruption thrown at him by the mutineers and for allegedly conspiring to hatch the bombings in the South earlier this year.
Source: Philippine Star, 6 August 2003
MILITARY OFFICIAL: SOMETHING BIG UNCOVERED IN MUTINY PROBE. The Armed Forces has uncovered what it described as "something big" in its ongoing investigation into the failed July 27 coup and hunt for the military putschists who are still at large.
"We received reports pertaining to the events on July 26 and 27, we have uncovered something big and we feel that it is a continuing thing," Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for intelligence (J-2) Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay told the House committee on defense yesterday. In the resumption of the congressional inquiry on the failed power grab, Cabuay told lawmakers he still cannot reveal the details since it may compromise ongoing government operations.
Cabuay answered the questions thrown to him by congressmen led by committee chairman Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay, who noted Armed Forces chief Gen. Narciso Abaya failed to appear before the hearing. Cabuay told the committee that Abaya and the J-2 with the Armed Forces deputy chief of staff for operations (J-3) are working "round the clock" because of the development. In his letter addressed to the committee chairman, Abaya asked that he be excused from appearing "in the interest of national security."
Source: Philippine Star, 6 August 2003
Mindanao Truth Commission Appeals for Mutineers’ Help in Probe of Davao Bombings. Even as President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is yet to make true her SONA promise of creating a commission to probe the Davao bombings, the citizen-led Mindanao Truth Commission has kicked off its own independent investigation.
Convenors of the Initiatives for Peace in Mindanao (INPEACE Mindanao) has called on the junior officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines who staged the July 27 mutiny in Makati last week to “entrust their evidence and testimonies” to the Commission. Members of the “grassroots-based” Commission come from the Muslim and Christian religious, Lumads, lawyers, the academe, human-rights watchdogs and peace-advocacy groups.
In its document entitled “Framework for the Mindanao Independent Fact Finding Mission,” which was released to the press during the Mindanao Peace Forum attended by Vice President Teofisto Guingona two weeks before the Makati mutiny, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Hashim Salamat, and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Mindanao spokesman Ka Oris were identified by the group as “key information sources.” This, as Inpeace Mindanao leaders doubted that a truly independent investigation could be expected from the government “as long as Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes holds on to his post and continues to wield immense powers over the AFP intelligence units and its whole apparatus.”
Around 300 rebel soldiers including the young officers of AFP calling themselves as the Magdalo group staged a mutiny at the Oakwood service apartments in Makati City last July 27. The mutineers revealed that Reyes and Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus were behind the Davao bombings and had plotted terroristic activities that would lead to the declaration of martial law this month.
In a statement, Montalba said: “The alleged Reyes-Corpus hand in the Davao bombings further emphasizes our analysis that traditional institutions like the AFP, including the whole Arroyo administration, are suffering from a serious crisis of credibility.” INPEACE Mindanao said that its “consistent and persistent” call for an independent investigation into the series of mystery bombings in Davao and other parts in Mindanao had been “validated” by the claims of the young officers of the Philippine Military Academy Class ‘95. It said the AFP junior officers “confirmed and validated that the pervading terrorism in Mindanao is government-sponsored.”
Montalba added that the victims of the Davao bombings deserve to be given immediate justice and that “if the AFP junior officers are sincere in their quest for genuine reforms in the armed forces and the country, they should press on by presenting the evidence they hold until heads will roll, including those of the Defense and AFP top brass.” “It is the moral obligation of the AFP junior officers to tell all, and help seek justice for the victims of the AFP’s alleged terrorism in Davao,” Montalba said.
Source: Bulatlat.com Mindanao Bureau, 3 August 2003