Jailing Trillanes
- Philippine politics, Rule of law -
I had already written my column for today when I got word—-through an unfailingly efficient member of the Senate—-that the Makati Regional Trial Court had thrown out Senator Antonio Trillanes’ petition for limited, “functional” freedom. It was about five pm, yesterday (Monday).
As it turned out, Judge Oscar Pimentel denied all of Trillanes’ petitions.
In a sweeping denial of all of Trillanes’ pleas, Judge Oscar Pimentel Monday rejected Trillanes’ motions to be allowed to attend all official Senate functions, to be given access to media and to set up an extension office inside the Marine detention center at Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City.
Pimentel upheld the prosecution claim that the Department of Justice, “as the prosecuting arm of the government, its shield and sword of law and order, represents not only the 11,138,067 voters who voted for him (Trillanes), but the people of the Philippines, with all its 85 million citizens and counting.”
In the column, I had argued that, despite the self-evident sincerity of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel (no relation, I think), Senate Resolution No. 22 (since renamed Resolution No. 3, after it was adopted on July 25) may be said to encroach on the judiciary’s admittedly limited territory.
