Trillanes asks SC to allow him to perform Senate duties

By Leila Salaverria Inquirer MANILA, Philippines--Jailed opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has asked the Supreme Court to reverse a Makati court decision and allow him to attend Senate sessions and other official functions. Trillanes, who is in jail on coup d'etat charges in connection with the July 2003 Oakwood mutiny, also asked the high court to stop the military from preventing him from seeing his Senate staff, resource persons and guests at his detention cell at the Marine Barracks of Fort Bonifacio. Named respondents in the petition were Makati regional trial court Judge Oscar Pimentel; Armed Forces Chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr.; Marine Commandant, Major General Benjamin Dolorfino; Navy Flag Officer in Command, Vice Admiral Rogelio Calunsag; and Marine Barracks Manila commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Luciardo Obeña Jr. In rejecting Trillanes' petition to be allowed to attend Senate sessions, allowed access to media and set up an office in his jail cell, the Makati court said the request was tantamount to asking that Trillanes be given special privileges and preferential treatment. In his petition, Trillanes said the Makati court's decision not to allow him to attend Senate sessions was inconsistent with its earlier ruling allowing him to run for public office. He said the ruling was equivalent to "denying the people's will, refusing their choice and overruling their mandate as the country's sovereign." Trillanes won election to the Senate in the May 2007 elections with about 11 million votes. Trillanes said he should be given the same treatment as deposed president Joseph Estrada, who was convicted of plunder last month and sentenced to life imprisonment, and Nur Misuari, founder of the Moro National Liberation Front and the former governor of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao. He said Estrada was allowed out to attend social functions, while Misuari was placed under "townhouse arrest" and allowed to go abroad. His lawyer Reynaldo Robles said that until September 27, his client was allowed to receive visitors and resource persons, including other senators, but the military later banned him from receiving guests, except for close family members, without explanation. The ban came after Trillanes held a committee hearing at his detention cell in Fort Bonifacio. Trillanes said that with the ban on visitors, he is now stopped from fulfilling the few Senate functions that he was able to do.