Press Release
April 29, 2009

Trillanes denies alleged 'rescue' plot

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV vehemently denied reports of an alleged plot to 'rescue' him and other detained officers following the arrest of former soldiers at a shooting range in Clark Field in Pampanga.

He called the claims by Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) executive director Mariano Villafuerte as "absurd" and "misleading."

Villafuerte had announced that the group was nabbed while training to conduct destabilization activities and also 'extricate' Trillanes, Brigadier General Danilo Lim and other soldiers detained at the Camp Crame Custodial Center on rebellion charges.

"It has become a consistent tactic of this administration to use disinformation to distract people from its heinous plots against our people, such as the on-going Cha-Cha railroading and the early relief of General (Alexander) Yano as AFP Chief of Staff," Trillanes said.

The PAOCC executive director is the son of administration solon Rep. Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur, known as a staunch ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the major proponent of Charter Change in the House of Representatives.

Trillanes clarified that only one of the arrested retired soldiers is a member of the Magdalo and had been merely undergoing security training to secure job opportunities abroad. "To immediately conclude that I am planning to commit terrorist acts because a Magdalo member is undergoing training for overseas employment is totally absurd and can only be concocted by a very imaginative mind. That Villafuerte fellow must either be crazy or high on something," he added.

Among those taken into custody by the PAOCC was New Zealander Anthony Newman, who purportedly recruited Steven Curtis Rossiter, a former member of the Australian special forces, according to Villafuerte.

Charged with alleged violations of the Human Security Act, the six former soldiers, four ex-Navy and two ex-Army officers, were all released over the weekend as prosecutors sought further evidence to establish probable cause.

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