Sen. Aquilino Q. Pimentel : Speeches :

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REPORT

 

To            :   The Senate

 

From       :   Sen. Nene Pimentel

 

Subject  :   VISIT TO DETAINED SENATOR ANTONIO TRILLANES IV & COMPANY

 

Date        :   December 7, 2007

 

 

At 10 on the morning of December 6, Senator Panfilo Lacson and I visited Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and his fellow detainees at Camp Crame.

 

Thanks to DILG Sec. Puno et al 

 

Our thanks for facilitating the visit by DILG Secretary Ronaldo Puno and his undersecretaries Marius Corpus and Austere Panadero have already been verbally given. We reiterate our gratitude in this report, this time in writing.

 

The Officers of the PNP in charge of the detention facilities went out of their way to kindly clear our entry into the compound where the Senator and his group are detained at present.

 

 

We had an unsupervised[1] meeting with Senator Trillanes, Gen. Danny Lim, Captain Gary Alejano, Capt. Segundino Otiano, Lt. SG Louie Cabochan, Lt. SG James Layug and 10 other military officers and personnel[2] who were involved with the Manila Peninsula Hotel incident on November 29. I do not know if the place was bugged with listening devices, however.

 

Also present at the meeting were the civilian activists[3] who got arrested for the same incident led by lawyers J.V. Bautista, Argee Guevara and Fr. Robert Reyes.

 

 

Why the visit 

 

I told Senator Trillanes and company that we came to visit them to show that we have their welfare at heart even if they are now viewed as violators of the law. After all, at this point, they are all presumed innocent until proven guilty. As fellow Senators to him and as fellow citizens to the others, I said we believe that they are all entitled to the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and that due process must be accorded them if they are to get justice.

 

Senator Lacson kindly let me do practically all the talking. He had brought a book on Sun Tzu which he gave to General Lim, I suppose, to send the message that one does not do things “haphazardly” in any important enterprise. I brought a basket of fruits that I gave to the Senator and his companions.

 

I asked Senator Trillanes and his companions how they were being treated inside the camp.

 

Senator Trillanes did most of the answering. I gathered from him and from his colleagues who now and then interjected their own responses that in general they are well treated by their jailors. The colleagues of Senator Trillanes, however, said that they were kicked and trampled upon by certain officers after they were made to lie down in the aftermath of their arrest. They were also subjected to a lot of verbal abuse.

 

The Senator likewise showed me a slight – already healing - cut on his left wrist that was caused by the handcuffs that were placed rather too tightly on him. For the record, they, all said, they were not complaining against those “minor” acts of brutality by the arresting officers. They were, however, one in saying that Police Director Geary Barias showed his utter inability to exercise effective control of his men in suppressing the Manila Pen incident. It showed, they added, that Barias was not fit to lead the PNP as he is rumored to be the next PNP Director General. The police being armed law enforcers, they said, must be led by a person who not only has courage, clarity of mind, a clear direction for his men to follow, unquestionable integrity and the like but also the capacity to control his men especially in times of stress. In short, they believe, that Barias does not have what it takes to head the PNP as a civilian arm of the civil government considering these troubled times.

 

In another matter, my assistant, Omeng Maglangit, inspected one of the cells of the detainees. He told me later that it was clean and relative well kept. Certainly not of 5-star hotel quality but not of the squatter-shanty type either.

 

Dark plots

 

The Senator hinted at the existence of some dark plots to eliminate him and General Lim in the course of the PNP operation to flush them out of the Pen. While he did not – or could not at that point - elaborate on his theory, he spoke of the over–reaction of the authorities in getting them out of the hotel and arresting them.

 

Over–reaction 

 

There was absolutely no need, he said, for the police to have used tear gasses. They were, at the time, preparing to get out of the Pen because they were worried about the safety of the civilians that included former Vice President Tito Guingona and Bishop Emeritus Julio Labayen and the members of the media who were covering the incident.

 

Still, the authorities tear-gassed them and cut off all lights at the lobby of the hotel as they were going down to give themselves up, the Senator said. It was as if the authorities wanted to smoke them out of the upper part of the hotel and make them easy targets at the lobby as they were surrendering. Luckily, media people followed them all the way from inside the hotel up to the time when they were bodily hustled by police agents into a waiting police van parked some meters away from the main entrance of the hotel.

 

Media prevented bloodbath

 

In short, the Senator believed that the presence of the media prevented blood from being shed in the whole affair. He thought that the arrest of the media people was totally uncalled for.

 

 

 

The companions of the Senator including the civilian demonstrators were one in disavowing that they were the source of the gunshots that were heard shortly before the main entrance of the Pen was smashed by an armored personnel carrier. The shots had all come, they said, from the police agents outside the hotel. Had the authorities believed that they had fired the shots, they would have been subjected to paraffin tests as a part of routine police investigative procedures. That the police authorities did not do so was proof, they said, that they had not fired any shot during the entire incident.

 

Scenario shots 

 

They said that the shots were fired to make it appear that there was an armed uprising going on in the Pen when in fact there was none. They added that the shots were a part of a script to justify the use of armed force to subdue Senator Trillanes and company and end their occupancy of the hotel.

 

To show that they had not meant to use any coercive force or even compel the authorities to negotiate with them, the Senator said that they could have held Police Director Barias hostage when the latter came over to talk with them. But they did not. They only told Barias to go back where he came from because he was not in a position to address their grievances.

 

Visits 

 

I asked them if they are allowed visits from their families, lawyers and doctors. Their unanimous answer was in the affirmative.

 

The presence of their lawyers and some other civilians – and nuns - in the area of their confinement where we met with them confirmed the veracity of their reply.

 

Complaints 

 

      When I asked the Senator if he had any complaints that he would like our colleagues in the Senate to hear, he reiterated that:

 

1. He should be allowed to discharge his duties as a Senator even under guard;

 

2. His cause – even the recent Peninsula Hotel incident – according to him was not an armed uprising or a rebellion. They wanted, he said, to simply air their grievances mainly against their prolonged detention and pendency of the criminal charges against them in the Makati court and several disciplinary charges against them in various court martials;

 

3. The civilians now being detained with him should be released soonest;

 

4. There are no clear signs that good governance practices are being instituted up to now despite the clamor of the people; and

 

5. Poverty has not been significantly alleviated despite pronouncements to the contrary.

 

 

Basic ills 

 

Atty. Bautista and his colleagues also aired similar complaints against the failure of the government to address the basic ills of our society.

 

They believed that the rhetoric of the administration in poverty alleviation and corruption curbing does not measure up to its deeds.

 

 

 

To air grievances, not revolt 

 

Also, they emphasized that their having marched from the Makati Trial Court to the Manila Peninsula Hotel did not amount to a rebellion or coup d’tat. Like Senator Trillanes, all they wanted to do was to articulate their grievances – social, electoral, structural - against the government by joining “a protest march”.

 

In the midst of our conversation, I mentioned in passing that the questioned ballot boxes in the 2007 elections in Maguindanao and other areas in Mindanao have been retrieved and that the election protest of Koko Pimentel against Migs Zubiri would be started, hopefully, sooner than later.

 

 

Unaware 

 

Fr. Robert Reyes for his part said that he was not aware of the inception of the march of Senator Trillanes. In fact, he was scheduled to say mass at a nearby place but when he learned about the march and saw the old and sickly Bishop Emeritus Julio Labayen trudging along with the demonstrators, he decided to link up with the marchers at or near the Pen primarily to be able to give succor to the Bishop if and when the latter needed it. Neither rebellion nor revolution nor coup d’tat was in his mind at the time of the incident.

 

Mobile phones confiscated 

 

All the detainees decry their being deprived of their mobile phones – the only direct means they have of communicating with the outside world. They all say that they are not convicts – only detention prisoners – and therefore entitled to the use of communication equipment to enable them to reach the outside world.

 

While their position on the matter is understandable from their point of view, still the confiscation of their mobile phones appear reasonable considering that they are being charged with rebellion.

 

Transfer to Bilibid 

 

They also resist the idea of being transferred to the national penitentiary - popularly called Bilibid - which they say are only for prisoners who have been convicted by final judgment by the courts. To imprison them in the national penitentiary, they say, would unduly tag them as convicts and induce police authorities and more importantly the people to believe that they are indeed convicts and should be treated as such even as they are still to be tried at some future time.

 

 

Good Shape 

 

In my view, Senator Trillanes appears to be in good shape in mind, body and soul.

 

He is optimistic that he would be vindicated despite his belief that the government wants to get him convicted by hook or by crook.

 

As we parted, I advised the Senator to “Stay away from trouble.”

 

 

Recommendations 

 

I respectfully recommend that:

 

1.         The Senate should continue pressing the authorities to allow the Senator to function as a member of the legislature subject to reasonable measures that may be adopted to ensure his safety and prevent any possible repetition of the Oakwood or Manila Pen incidents;

2.         The Senate should form a special committee to monitor the developments in the cases both civil and military against Senator Trillanes and his companions;

3.         The Senate President should assign a Senator or, perhaps, a competent lawyer to witness the proceedings against the Senator; visit him from time to time and report to the Senate periodically the results of his or her findings; and

4.         Do such other things that may be deemed as necessary and lawful in the premises.

 

Postscript 

 

The day after my visit to Senator Trillanes, in its issue of December 7, the Manila Standard Today maliciously castigated me in its editorial cartoon for allegedly advising the Senator to: “Keep up the good work!”

 

 

 

Based on that false premise, the paper proceeded to excoriate me in its editorial for allegedly supporting Senator Trillanes’s “disrespects not only for the law but also the entire system of justice.” The editorial also tarred me as a bird of the same feather as the Senator. By so doing, the paper assumes – speciously, of course, that I support the forcible ouster of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

 

I think the paper over did itself. Not for the failure of its cartoon to do justice to my eyebags but for falsely attributing words that I never said to Senator Trillanes or to any of his colleagues that are found on top of the cartoon. The things that we discussed are enumerated in this report. In fact, as we parted, I told him: "Stay away from trouble.” The concepts contained in that admonition are at least a thousand miles away from the thoughts that are embedded in the words: “Keep-up the good work!”

 

I guess the newspaper has a lot to learn from the cartoons of Herblock of The Washington Post fame or from Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury. But, the newspaper being what it is, a broadsheet reportedly owned by businessman Enrique Razon, a crony of the president, might not be expected to uphold the virtues of accuracy and fairness. Thus, although it had absolutely no basis for attributing to me or even implying that I said those words of encouragement to Senator Trillanes, it did so blatantly in its editorial page of December 7.

 

Business reasons 

 

Mr. Razon probably has his business reasons – not the least of which are his interests in the  questionable ZTE contract and the projected sale of Transco - to butter up to the President by having his paper disparage me, a known critic of the latter.

 

To address the issue more directly, I would like to put on record that in all my political life I have sought changes in government but always through peaceful – not violent – means, yes, even during the dark days of the martial law regime of Mr. Ferdinand E. Marcos. But even as I stood for the restoration of democracy over authoritarianism by pacific methods, he had me jailed four times for my defiance of the regime. In brief, I think I have paid my dues to the peaceful struggle for the reinstatement of our libertarian tradition. And up to this point, I have no reason to change course and advocate the use of force.

 

Legitimacy shot through 

 

Still, I do want Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to get out of the presidential office because her legitimacy is shot through with holes bigger than the gaps in a fisherman’s net. But I want it done through peaceful, non-violent, means that I suppose a majority of my colleagues in the Senate also wish would happen the sooner, the better.

 

That said, it is my opinion that the Manila Standard Today has every right to be wrong but not to be irresponsible. I think that it is the height of unreliability and capriciousness to use a false, unfounded and totally untrue premise and, then, exploit it as a basis to criticize the actuations of others in a daily that is meant to disseminate true and factual information for the guidance of people.

 

Licentious journalism 

 

That kind of journalism is licentious and should not be done under the cover of freedom of speech and of the press.

 

Nonetheless, the media should never be muzzled because of the excesses of a few. Those of us who fought for our freedoms against the martial law regime did not do so we can now gag our own critics. It is in this respect that I decry the attempt to silence the media in this country by the unwarranted arrests of journalists covering the Manila Pen incident last November 29. I also denounce the recent ominous threats emanating from the administration to charge them for rebellion as if they are an integral part and a vital parcel of the acts for which Senator Trillanes et al are being called to account.

 

Be fair and factual 

           

          All I ask, therefore, is for The Manila Standard Today to be fair and factual in its editorial commentaries and be a responsible member of the mass media of this country. We all need dependable and conscientious practitioners of the mass media – yes, even the Manila Standard Today - so that we will continue to vigorously nurture our democratic experiment even as it is now threatened by a creeping imperial presidency.