Press statement from the office of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on the dismissal of the Supreme Court of his petitition to be allowed to perform his job as senator:
Regardless of the circumstances, be assured that this Senator will continue to serve you.” These were the fighting words from detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, upon the announcement of a Supreme Court decision barring his attendance of Senate hearings.
The 16-page unanimous ruling affirmed the decision of Makati Trial Court Branch 148 Judge Oscar Pimentel Sr. against Trillanes’ petition to be allowed to attend all Senate functions, to have an office in his detention cell, and to receive members of his staff in his detention office.
“Out of duty and desire, I will still answer the people’s collective call to action as duly elected Senator of this country,” said Trillanes, who authored 138 bills, ranked fifth in the Senate, while incarcerated at the Camp Crame Custodial Center for rebellion charges.
Trillanes remains focused on what he considers as his three primary roles as senator, he said, which are to craft legislation, oversee the proper functions of government, and advocate issues of national concern.
He added that the ruling wouldn’t weaken his anti-corruption campaign but lamented how he could do more as a duly-elected legislator if his petition were granted.
Trillanes has filed bills lifting the prohibition of disclosure or inquiry into bank deposits of government officials and creating a reward system for informers of ill-gotten wealth. His other priority bills include the repeal of RA 9337 or the EVAT law, the creation of a special poverty fund, and the Archipelagic Baselines bill.
“These bills were meticulously done with the end in view of uplifting the lives of our people and making our country a better place to live in,” he said.
A former soldier, Trillanes is also lobbying for defense and security laws on the Philippines’ archipelagic baselines and reviewing the status of peace agreements with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front.”
The Supreme Court only condemned themselves by denying Senator Trillanes’ petition.
Sonny, bear this in mind, someday, there will be a change of this corrupt government. You have done your part and it’s up to the people to decide what course to take. I still consider you a duly elected senator of the Republic.
Bravo Sen. Trillanes!!!!!
Tunay na bayani ka. Tunay na tagapagtanggol sa mga naaapi! Taga pagtanggol ng taong bayan! Kung magaganap lang election ngayon, at si Gloria Dorobo o alin man sa mga alipores nya ang makakalaban mo, malayong ikaw pa rin ang iboboto ko! Ikaw ay my panindigan at principio…
MABUHAY KA SEN. SONNY TRILLANES…. GOD BLESS YOU!!!!
That’s my Senator. He surely deserves the admiration and respect of all freedom-loving, God-fearing and patriotic Filipinos!!!
I was not able to vote for him because Japan did/does not allow dual citizenship, but I had allowed my staff to use my facilities in campaigning for Senator Trillanes in the last election. It is I guess for this reason that the creep, who knows by now that she can’t fool the OFWs forever, must be telling her palakpak brigade in the Philippine Congress and Senate to make it difficult for OFWs to enjoy to the fullest their righ to vote.
As a Japanese national enjoying the full benefits of a real democracy, I surely feel sorry for all Filipinos, even those who still believe that they have no choice but to give the criminal their due respect and obey her like a truly elected president even when everybody knows by now that she won the election in 2004 by cheating and stealing votes. Kaya desperate ang kumag to get recognition from the ignoramuses in the US of A. Yuck!
Mabuhay ka Senator Trillanes. Never give up! A lot of your supporters have not in fact. Tuloy ang laban!
Thanks for the picture of Senator Trillanes, Ellen. Palaban ang dating! Iyan ang type namin!!!
Gunggong na mga meimbros ng Supreme Court ni Korap Gloria! Walang pakinabang sa inyo ang mga kapinuyan na siyang ring nagpapasweldo sa inyo. Letse kayong lahat, magkamatay na kayo at isama ang inyong among Gloria sa hukay!
“Unanimous ruling” of the SC against Trillanes appeal to serve the nation. Hanep! Pati iyong mga dati kong iginagalang ay nahawa na sa kahangalan!
Di bale Senator Sonny, wala tayong iwanan dito!
Mabuhay ka!
I like the photo, Ellen. Thanks.
Hi. Thought you guys might want to read this. Armida quotes some of you here.
No Holds Barred
—Armida Siguion-Reyna 07-07-08
The Daily Tribune
Believe you me
The Lola is back, deeply upset by news of the Supreme Court not granting Antonio Trillanes IV his petition to disburse official duties as duly-elected legislator of the republic. One begins to wonder about the wisdom of the majority in the high bench, especially given the reasons they put down for withholding the rights not only of the senator, but of the eleven million-plus who voted for him in May of 2007.
He’s a flight-risk, claims Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, in a 16-page decision that in effect agreed with most of what Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel stated in his last year’s ruling, and which also cited as proof the Makati Peninsula “Nov. 29 incident” where Trillanes, Brig. Gen. Danny Lim, Magdalos and civilians holed up at the hotel following an impromptu march on Makati Avenue, straight from another RTC hearing at the Makati municipio.
But not from where I stand.
If the man were truly a flight risk, he wouldn’t have walked out from one prison straight into another. He would have gotten into a cab or any other vehicle, direct to not any of the domestic airports, but to the pier, and from there travel incognito all the way to a full exit at the southern backdoor, somehow get himself to the US a la Ninoy Aquino and from there orchestrate his opposition to Gloria Arroyo’s government.
He did nothing of the sort, how can he be a flight risk?
It’s not as if he asked to be released from detention, either. He only wanted permission to attend Senate sessions and committee hearings, allowed regular meetings with his staff—in jail, por Dios por santo, not even in the Senate office assigned to him, but behind steel bars, a location preference that again indicates he’s not about to up and away—and access to media interviews.
It’s most probably the bit about media access that’s making the President’s men nervous. Yup, that’s what I said, the President’s men, for that now is the current make-up of the Supreme Court. They’re mostly the President’s men, at her beck and call, regardless of whether she’s truly president, or they’re truly men.
I’m no lawyer, but I know a bit about numbers. Convicted solon Romeo Jalosjos was elected by a provincial constituency that nowhere approached the volume of votes that put Trillanes in position. A miracle of sorts, considering he spent a pititing fraction of what losers Prospero Pichay and Mike Defensor wasted, and he was in prison all throughout the campaign period.
How could he have won, when he spent only, what, P6 million? How could he have won, talaga, when he shook the hands of barely a thousand? These thoughts must still run in the minds of the big spenders of 2007 who lost, and for sure they rankle. It won’t be surprising to find out the talunan are among those who ensure Trillanes’s eternal stay in the Marine Brig. Kapas, for envy can cut deep.
It’s the same Marine Brig Judge Pimentel reminds us to be “a high security detention facility,” and not a regular “civilian government office” where Trillanes’s staff can freely go in and out of as if the senator they were serving were “furloughing from his place of detention” like he were “above and beyond the pale of law.”
See how judge does not realize how very much he contradicts himself. He points out Trillanes is a “flight risk” virtually in the same sentence that he describes his spot at Fort Bonifacio as a “high security detention facility.” You immediately want to confront and ask him to clarify what he’s actually saying.
And see also how the judge fails to see who’s really been “furloughing” from heavy duties over at the Upper Chamber, some elected as legislators kuno but not knowing why they’re even there, and one not even genuinely elected, to begin with. Truth has got to be told, and I will say it here: Trillanes, the preso, has done much more than Lito Lapid and Bong Revilla. Who’s really playing “above and beyond the pale of law” but the actors, except for Jinggoy Estrada, mga sinisuwelduhan at kumukubra ng allowance bilang senador, kahit walang ginagawa?
The blogs are frothing. In my fellow Trillanes believer Ellen Tordesillas’s site, a writer has likened the SC to “a kangaroo court” and noted “the justice system … has deteriorated … no thanks to conniving lawyers, prosecutors and police.”
I must quote in full a particularly enlightening entry from a Filipina based in Europe, as I agree with herm a hundred percent: “The Filipino people voted (Trillanes) senator BECAUSE THEY WANTED HIM TO DO THE JOB OF A SENATOR.
“The people of the Philippines spoke when they voted Trillanes senator against all odds — so why can’t they respect that? While I accept that the job of the SC is to interpret the laws of democracy, they must do it with the spirit of the law in mind and not to confuse the citizens of the republic with their charrabia.”
“As Rousseau said, the law is best served when applied with reason.
“All these SC legalese are nothing but ‘gobbledygookings!’ They who did everything in 2001 to undermine the Republic are not credible!”
Tutoo ka, here in this sadlak sa dusa corner of the globe, the law is served according to the reasons of the entrenched. Scared of a thoroughly decent fellow like Trillanes, they go to great lengths to keep him isolated from his supporters. He will never be granted regular access to media, or permitted the normal discharge of his job as senator, while on the other hand an Unelected sashays his way in the senate plenary halls.
Meanwhile, what does Trillanes have to say? A quiet but meaningful “It’s okay to lose small battles as long as we ultimately win the war.”
The statement is enough to calm me down, for the moment. Indeed, we shall get there. It no longer matters if it’s today or tomorrow, but when we get to 2010 and see no one from the administration enter the winning circle from top to bottom, from president to the lowest councilor or Sangguniang Kabataan representative, that will be our victory.
By then, Trillanes will walk. Believe you me.
(For comments, write to armida114@yahoo.com)
AT4’s brilliant legislative focus by way of significance has overshadowed many of his colleagues’ own work, prison notwithstanding, that being allowed to meet his staff in order to be more efficient is a minute concession that should have been allowed. The presumption of innocence is still in force, that small compromise would help defuse the tense situation if not lead to a more harmonious coexistence instead of clashing politics. That I believe is the essence of law, to promote goodwill and peace for the benefit of the greater majority.
If they are convinced he is guilty, convict him, but until that time, he has the RIGHT to enjoy, AND, the DUTY to perform the mandate the people have bestowed on him.
Let him serve!
Yes, let him serve! Sayang iyong boto ng 11M voters!!!
Sen. Trillanes, you are our Senator! Mabuhay ka!
We’ll keep on praying for you! Don’t worry, the Lord doesn’t sleep. The DAY of justice will come for you! Our prayers will set you FREE!
Ikaw… ang tunay na alagad ng bayan! We’re proud of you!
Kung flight risk si Trillanes e di sana ay hindi lang si Kapitan ang hinahabol nila ngayon. Ungas na Morales.
Pansin ninyo ba, Carpio rin ang maiden name? Dalawa na silang Carpio sa Supreme Court.
Ang hindi katanggap-tanggap, si Misuari, tunay na rebellion ang isinagawa – nanawagan ng pagtayo ng Bangsamoro Republic, maraming buhay ang nakitil, maraming ari-arian ang nasira.
Si Trillanes, gusto lang paimbistigahan sina Corpuz at Reyes, at inokupa nila ang Oakwood nang mabalitaang pinahuhuli na sila ni Pandak.
Pero si Misuari, bukod sa house arrest, nakakalabas pa. Si Trillanes gustong magsilbi sa bayan hindi pinayagan.
Rule of law daw – sa istilong baluktot. Huwag na tayong mag-gaguhan. Darating din ang araw ninyo. Weder-weder lang.