By Jesus F. Llanto
29 November 2008
Newsbreak Online
Image It all started from a walkout from a court hearing of soldiers facing charges on the failed Oakwood mutiny in 2003. What followed, however, was an unfolding of intense and gripping events comparable to an action series on television. The event was full of suspense but for Filipinos it was just one of those upheavals that occasionally rock the political landscape of the Philippines.
The Manila Peninsula siege, which occurred exactly a year ago, has all the ingredients of drama—a senator elected by 11 million Filipinos but was not allowed to serve, a group of soldiers calling for protest actions against a hugely unpopular president, bishops and opposition figures expressing support for them, guests who were forced to leave a hotel after it was occupied by the soldiers, government forces outnumbering the mutineers and a horde of reporters who, unfortunately, ended as the subject of the news.
After Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig, Gen. Danilo Lim and other soldiers walked out of the court hearing, they marched through the streets of Makati City .The soldiers then proceeded to The Peninsula Manila—a posh hotel in the financial district popularly known as Manila Pen—where they held a press conference and called for the ouster of President Arroyo.
Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr, former University of the Philippines president Francisco Nemenzo and Catholic bishops Antonio Tobias and Julio Labayen joined Trillanes and Lim at the hotel.
The Philippine National Police declared a red alert status as a result of the incident and National Capital Region police chief Geary Barias ordered all the hotel guests to leave the hotel. A Makati regional trial court issued an arrest warrant and the PNP set a 3pm deadline for the soldiers to surrender.
The soldiers, however, refused to surrender and the government responded by deploying soldiers and armored personnel carriers in the area. By five o’clock, an APC barged into the hotel door of the lobby allowing government forces to get inside the hotel and arrest the mutineers.
The six-hour standoff ended with the surrender of Trillanes and Lim, the arrest of members of the media who were covering the incident and the destruction of parts of the posh hotel.
Abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak takes a look at last year’s failed attempt to oust Arroyo. We go back to the event and see what has since happened to those people involved and the cases that stemmed from the standoff.
Trillanes and Lim: Detained
Trillanes and Lim, the leaders of the siege, are still detained and are facing charges of rebellion. Before the standoff happened, the two had been facing charges related to their participation in moves calling for the ouster of Arroyo.
Trillanes was among the leaders of the Magdalo soldiers who stormed Oakwood hotel in 2003 and staged a mutiny. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court has junked Trillanes’s petition to attend Senate hearings. Trillanes was the 11th placer in 2007 senatorial posts but he was barred from attending sessions in the Senate.
The former Scout Rangers chief Lim, on the other hand, was facing court martial proceedings for attempting to join anti-Arroyo protesters in February 2006 and for withdrawing his support from Arroyo.
Ernesto Franciso, lawyer of Trillanes for the Manila Peninsula case, said that they have filed a case to dismiss the rebellion charges.
“I’m optimistic,” Franciso told abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak. “It’s not rebellion because there was no public uprising. They just marched out of the hearing.”
Franciso said those involved in the Manila Pen cases were first charged with inciting to sedition but later charged with rebellion, a non-bailable offense. He said that records from the Philippine National Police Custodial center showed that those who were charged with rebellion were initially charged with inciting to sedition.
Last March, Trillanes and Lim declined to enter a plea on the charges related to the Manila Pen siege.
Still vocal
Despite their detention, the two soldiers have remained vocal critics of the administration.
Just recently, Trillanes said in a television interview that former House Speaker Jose de Venecia—who detailed the alleged involvement in the NBN-ZTE deal—is the “new Chavit.”
Lim, meanwhile, has issued a statement on Thursday—a day after the House justice committee junked the fourth impeachment complaint against the preside—urging the people to oust Arroyo.
“GMA continues to inflict herself on our hapless people. In the process, scarce government resources are squandered to buy for her dubious loyalties, institutions are prostituted to project a sham imprimatur to an immoral governance, public service has evolved into a buffet of graft and corruption, and morals, values, accountability and responsibility have been reduced to mere flamboyant phrases. She destroyed the very concept of truth as the foundation of every act of government,” Lim said in a statement released to the media.
Media cases: Still hanging
ImageOne of the unexpected results of the standoff was the arrest of some media practitioners who covered the incidents; some of the members of the media were handcuffed before they were hauled to a bus that brought them to Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan. Police said they brought the reporters to the camp for “processing” but media groups slammed the way the authorities treated the media.
In a media dialogue held after the incident, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno said the reporters were arrested for two violations: obstruction of justice and police disobedience.
A class suit was filed by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and individual journalists against government officials. The media groups said the arrests done were “arbitrary and illegal” and were made “with the abuse of discretion.”
Among the respondents in the suit were DILG’s Puno, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales, former Armed Forces Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon, and police officers led by former PNP chief Avelino Razon Jr. and NCRPO chief Geary Barias. These officials responded by filing a motion to dismiss.
Earlier this year, the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 54 judge Reynaldo Laigo granted the motions to dismiss filed by the government officials and said that the complaint “does not constitute sufficient cause of action for damages against the defendants that warrants further prosecution of the instant case.”
Media counsel Harry Roque, however, had said they would file a motion for reconsideration.
Meanwhile, reporters of ABS-CBN also filed a writ an amparo asking the government to reprimand government for their actions against the media following the November 29 caper.
Lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno told abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak that the Supreme Court has yet to decide on the matter and that the Office of the Solicitor General only filed its comment on the case last month.
The Commission on Human Rights, however, said in a report released last September that officers violated the “human rights of liberty, security of person and freedom from arbitrary arrest.”
The Peninsula Manila: Swift recovery
Perhaps one of the biggest casualties of the incident is The Peninsula Manila, where Trillanes and Lim held a press conference after their walkout from the court, and sought refuge until they surrendered to authorities.
The standoff left the hotel with torn tablecloths, broken glass windows and a damaged lobby. The Peninsula Manila, however, was able to recover quickly from the shambles and resumed its operation in less than a week.
In an e-mail interview with abs-cbnNews.com/Newsbreak, Mariano Garchitorena, director for public relations of The Peninsula Manila, said that the incident had a “negative impact” on their business although he did not provide further details on the effect of the siege on the hotel’s revenue and number of visitors.
“Renovation work cost about P12 million,” Garchitorena told us adding that the door at the hotel lobby, which was destroyed when armored personnel carrier broke into it to allow the soldiers to go inside, was re-opened in April 2008 or five months after the incident.
Asked if the hotel has any legal action as a result of the siege, Garchitorena said the matter “continues to be under review.” The hotel management, he adds, has also implemented more strict security measures following the standoff.
“The Peninsula Manila has always had strict security measures in place, even before the November 29 incident. However, existing hotel security measures have been stepped up,” Garchitorena said. (abs-cbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak)
