Press Release
January 4, 2010

Act on resolution for Trillanes now, Senate told

The Inter-Parliamentary Union urged in its letter to majority floor leader Senator Miguel Zubiri to act on a 2008 Senate resolution allowing detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to participate in the sessions and other legislative functions through remote or electronic means.

They called on authorities to "ensure that the resolution is implemented without further delay."

"The Philippines is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which enshrines fair trial guarantees and that, as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council, it has pledged to uphold the highest standards of human rights," said the IPU.

With 150 members, the IPU is the official international organization of the parliaments of the world's sovereign states. It was established in 1889 and is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The IPU lamented that not implementing the resolution prevents Trillanes from exercising his mandate meaningfully and deprives his electorate of representation in parliament.

Zubiri did not submit the required report on the resolution but the Senate President had already approved the proposed videoconferencing project with the necessary budget in place since June 2009, according to the Governing Council.

They expressed concern that Trillanes has been on trial and remains in detention for more than six years, a violation of his fundamental rights based on international jurisprudence.

His allegations of graft and corruption against the Armed Forces of the Philippines also merit further investigation, the IPU stressed.

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