Press Release
August 2, 2007

PIMENTEL BACKS TRILLANES' MOTION TO APPEAL RTC JUDGE
DECISION ON HIS PETITION TO ATTEND SENATE SESSION

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today expressed regret over the decision of Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel to deny the petition of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to attend the sessions and committee hearings of the Senate but backed his move to seek a reconsideration of the ruling.

Aside from ruling against Trillanes' petition to participate in Senate proceedings, the RTC judge also held that the neophyte senator cannot set up an office in his place of detention and members of his Senate staff will not be allowed to go in and out of his jail quarters in Fort Bonifacio.

"That is a little too strict a construction of what the law should apply to a detainee like Sen. Trillanes," Pimentel said.

Pimentel and 16 other senators were the authors of a Senate resolution asking that Trillanes be allowed to attend Senate sessions and perform his legislative duties.

He clarified that the resolution did not ask that Trillanes be freed unconditionally or that he be granted bail.

"All we are asking is that he be allowed to participate in the functions of the Senate," the senator said. "There is no imposition at all or an attempt to impose our will on the Makati Regional Trial Court."

Pimentel pointed out that in the case of Muslim rebel chieftain Nur Misuari, who was accused of rebellion and probably even graver offense that the imputed to Trillanes, the court granted his request to be put under house arrest and later his petition to be allowed to go to Sulu to campaign as candidate for governor in the last elections.

Not only that, the court also allowed Misuari to go to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to represent the Moro National Liberation Front in a tripartite conference on the peace process sponsored by the Organization of Islamic Conference scheduled in mid-July, although this was postponed to a later date.

"In other words, there are certain things that when a person who is accused of a political crime like coup d' etat (of which Trillanes is charged) and rebellion as in the case of Misuari, the ordinary rules for detaining him or restricting the exercise of his liberties may not necessarily apply," Pimentel said.

He said the case of former Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo Jalosjos does not apply to the case of Trillanes, because the former was accused of rape for which he was already convicted by the court. On the other hand, Trillanes is accused of a political offense, that of staging a mutiny against the Arroyo government which he and other Magdalo junior military officers blamed for rampant corruption and misrule.

Pimentel said Trillanes can very well attend the session of the Senate under guard and with all the facilities in place to ensure that he does not escape.

"There is hardly any possibility that Trillanes will escape while performing his duties as senator," he said.

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