August 2007 Archives

By DJ Yap Inquirer MANILA, Philippines--The Makati court handling the coup d'etat case against Sen ator Antonio Trillanes IV will hear on Friday his motion appealing the ruling r ejecting his request for furlough to attend Senate sessions. Judge Oscar Pimentel of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 will hear th e arguments of both parties on whether he should reverse his decision denying T rillanes leave to perform his Senate duties while under detention. On Thursday, the prosecution panel led by Assistant Chief State Prosecutor Rich ard Anthony Fadullon and State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera filed another plead ing opposing Trillanes' motion, which they said smacked of special treatment. "Accused Trillanes is not asking for nothing; he is asking for too muchâ¦He wan ts to be out of detention from morning to evening to attend all Senate sessions at the GSIS Building in Pasay City," they said. "He wants a working area in the Marine brig with telephone lines and Internet a ccess. He wants to receive members of his staff at all times. He wants access t o media at all times," the prosecutors added. They said Trillanes' motion was "uncannily similar" to former Zamboanga del Nor te representative Romeo Jalosjos' "motion to be allowed to discharge mandate as member of the House of Representatives," after he was elected while in detenti on on charges of statutory rape and acts of lasciviousness. The motion was denied when Jalosjos' conviction was upheld. "He [Trillanes] should just admit to this Honorable Court that he is asking for special treatment as a Senator of the Republic," the prosecutors said. Earlier, Trillanes said denying him the chance to perform his duties was like a "slap in the face" of the 11 million who voted for him, and was akin to "denyi ng the people's will, repudiating their choice and overruling their mandate as the sovereign of the nation." Trillanes asked the court to grant him leave to attend all official Senate func tions, increased media access, and a workstation inside his cell. In denying Trillanes' motion, Pimentel cited the "Jalosjos doctrine," which sta ted: "When the voters of his district elected the accused-appellant to Congress , they did so with full awareness of the limitation on his freedom of action." Pimentel agreed with the Jalosjos doctrine that "allowing a prisoner to attend congressional sessions and committee meetings for five days or more in a week w ill virtually make him a free man" and would constitute preferential treatment. Trillanes argued that Jalosjos was charged with various counts of rape and lasc iviousness, crimes involving moral turpitude, while he was charged with the off ense of coup d'etat, "a charge which is commonly regarded as a political offens e." He added that Jalosjos was convicted at the time he sought furlough to serve hi s term, while he is still undergoing trial. A better comparison, said Trillanes, would be with the cases of former presiden t Joseph Estrada and former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao governor Nur M isuari, who were allowed some liberties to perform political functions. The prosecutors, however, argued that citing the Estrada and Misuari cases "ass umes the trees for the forest." "The vast majority of non-bailable detention prisoners, who are not among the ' contemporary examples' cited by accused Trillanes, do not enjoy special treatme nt," they said.

GET a life, Senator Lacson! If you want to run for the presidency, at the very least have the decency of st atesmanship. Then again, you are Panfilo Lacson! The very same person who made news at the height of the investigation with regard to the deaths of the Kurato ng Baleleng Gang... the very same person who had on-and-off relationship with f ormer president Joseph Estrada... the very same person who, for his entire care er as a senator in the 13th Congress, devoted himself to implicating the First Family with countless allegations, which have never really prospered to a full- scale investigation! Now you have given breath anew to an expose< /a>, which is actually old news! Would you go so low as to bask yourself in cha racter assassination in the attempt to put your name and face in all the news m agazines and dailies? Would you rather prioritize your interests at the expense of a new beginning fo r Congress to make amends and finally get out of the abyss of political immatur ity? Most importantly, would this on a certain level reduce the heinous corrupt ion in the Philippine government? Go beyond political gimmickry and show us that you deserve the presidency come election 2010! -- Lemon Calulut, Riverside, California (via e-mail)

NO way, Mar. You are a pseudo-oppositionist. You want to align yourself with the opposition because you feel it is the "in" thing nowadays, notwithstanding the fact tha t opposition contenders for the presidency is already [an] overcrowded [group]. If all of you don't shape up, you will find yourselves clobbered by Malacanang' s annointed one. -- Wency Gunio, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (via e-mail)

THE WHOLE world saw what Trillanes had done when he and his cohorts held the Oakwood hotel and its employees hostage to further his "convic tions." Guts you say? The man was definitely not thinki ng straight when he launched his campaign of terror. Despite the noblest of int entions, his actions had consequences that so adversely affected the economy th at it moved progress some years back. Trillanes is a military man. He has no business talking the talk of civilians. How he won as senator is so beyond comprehension. Is that how the Filipino vote r selects leaders, on good looks and trash talk? -- Arpee Lazaro, Makati City, Philippines (via e-mail)

By INQUIRER.net MANILA, Philippines--A major media organization assailed reported plans of the Commission on Elections to file charges of electoral sabotage against two media personalities the poll body accused of cooking up stories meant to discredit i ts reputation. The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said it was âappalledâ by the threat voiced by election commissioner Nicodemo Ferrer and called it âan as sault on press freedom and freedom of expression.â In a statement signed by chairman Jose Torres Jr., the NUJP called âridiculous and outrageousâ Ferrerâs reason for filing the case -- to "cleanse the (journal ism) profession" -- and his equating the alleged false news and comments of the unnamed journalists to electoral sabotage, a non-bailable offense punishable w ith life imprisonment. It also said Ferrerâs threat to file the charges âbetrays once more government' s penchant for shooting the messenger instead of addressing the message.â âThis is the same mindset that is behind the official inaction that has worsene d the culture of impunity in this country and emboldened those within and witho ut government who would seek to cow the Philippine media into silence to contin ue their assaults, physical and otherwise, on journalists,â it said. Since President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo came to power in 2001, 53 journalists h ave been murdered, the highest media death toll under any presidency, including the 14-year Marcos dictatorship. They NUJP said it did not dispute Ferrerâs claims against the media personaliti es, saying this was for the poll official to prove. âBut to insinuate that the âmany things they have manufactured...may involve el ectoral sabotage,â is stretching credulity too far for an agency whose credibil ity has already been badly tarnished by the âHello Garciâ scandal and the curre nt brouhaha over Lintang Bedol, an agency, in fact, that many critics contend h as practically sabotaged the very democratic institution it is sworn to uphold, â it added. The group said Ferrerâs failure to name the allegedly errant journalists, âwhil e hinting they are ranking media practitioners with his reference to âaircondit ioned rooms,â is a misbegotten and limp attempt to sow fear among opinion maker s and media executives.â

I WISH to react to the news story in which th e political party Lakas says it wishes to play the role of "kingmaker" in 2010. How can Lakas be a kingmaker when it could not even manage to secure the victor y of Team Unity candidates in the last elections? All over the country, TU was roundly beaten, except in places like Cebu, where no Lakas candidate won in the province. We need not stray very far. We only need to ask the question -- how did the TU fare in Pangasinan, the supposed "baluarte" (bailiwick) of Lakas, JDV being fro m Pangasinan? It was shameful. Certainly nothing for JDV or Lakas to be proud o f. I think all this talk of "kingmaker" is just a shameless bid for Lakas to stay relevant in 2010. Because with JDV on his last term (and no waging a respectful national campaign), Lakas will just fade away, and its members absorbed by the more viable national parties, like NP or LP or NPC, who all have presidentiabl es. So Lakas should not kid itself. The best course to take now is to run for cover . -- Jorge Batoon, Glendale, California (via e-mail)