By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Colonel Ariel Querubin, one of the alleged leaders of the botched February 2006 coup, found an ally in former vice president Teofisto Guingona, who attended the officer’s habeas corpus hearing at the Court of Appeals on Thursday.
Guingona, who wore a button pin bearing Querubin’s face, sat beside the colonel during the proceedings.
“I give full support to Colonel Querubin because I know how it means to be imprisoned,” Guingona told reporters after the hearing.
Update:
At the investigation of the nine enlisted men today, they were given a charge sheet for violations of of Articles of War No. 67 (mutiny) and 96 (conduct unbecoming of an officer and gentleman) without supporting evidence.
In their own handwriting, at the back of the charge sheet, the soldiers denied the charges and explained their whereabouts on Feb. 23, 2006. many of them were at home in their provinces on administrative break pending the transfer to other units aftert eh the Anti-Crime task Force where they were assigned was dissolved.
When the nine of the 40 enlisted men of the Philippine Army’s Scout Rangers detained in Camp Capinpin for 18 months without charges were brought to the compound of the Army’s Intelligence Service last Wednesday night, their custodians didn’t waste time working on them.
And who did they use to try to break the nine? Capt. Milo Maestrocampo and Lt. Lawrence San Juan.
Something happened at the detention center in Camp Capinpin, Tanay today:
This morning, Col. Marcos, custodian commander and a team from the Philippine Army headquarters with a lady lawyer, a cerain Atty. Abucayon, tried to coerce nine of the remaining 14 detained enlisted personnel in Camp Capinpin to sign an affidavit saying that they have not been harmed, maltreated nor coerced.
The certification is a standard operating procedure in transfer of prisoners. The nine were to be transferred from Camp Capinpin to the Philippine Army headquarters in Fort Bonifacio.
Questioning of soldiers in absence of lawyer hit
by Victor Reyes
THE military attempted yesterday to get statements from 14 detained Army personnel without the presence of a counsel, a lawyer representing the soldiers said.
“In any custodial investigation, they should be assisted by a lawyer,” said Vicente Verdadero, who has volunteered to be the counsel of the 40 soldiers.
Above photos show the 26 soldiers at the Transient Quarters waiting for their ride out of the Philippine Army they had once served with dedication and loyalty.
Amid hastily packed boxes and plastic pails containing their meager belongings, 26 enlisted personnel of the elite Scout Rangers waiting for their ride home at the at the Transient Quarters of the Philippine Army in Fort Bonifacio,couldn’t help but blurt out their disgust at the shabby treatment they got from the institution they served so well.
Tempers flared and red scarves were waved at the court martial hearing yesterday of 28 officers allegedly involved in the failed coup against Gloria Arroyo in February 2006.
The courtroom animosity was precipitated by the insistence of the panel to proceed with the trial even when the Pre-Trial Advice, the basis of the charges against the officers is not signed by AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon.The accused raised a howl.
More photos:
by Victor Reyes
Officers accused of involvement in last year’s supposed attempt to grab power yesterday accepted a counter-challenge of Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. for them to tell the truth about a videotape showing their withdrawal of support from President Arroyo.
But they also asked Esperon to tell the truth on allegations that he and other military generals helped rig the May 2004 elections to ensure President Arroyo’s victory.
“We accept that challenge, Mr. Esperon. Do you?” the officers who are detained in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal said in a statement given to reporters covering the resumption of court martial proceedings against them.
Statement from Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, Brig. Gen. Danny Lim and the rest of the 28 officers detained in Camp Capinpin on Dolorfino’s statement that he does not think the bribery issue would be a source of grumbling among soldiers:
“Speak for yourself, you sycophant general. It hardly affects you because you have got it so good enjoying all the perquisites dispensed by an illegitimate leadership bereft of moral scruples which perpetuates itself through bribery and corrupting others.
“You’ve got it made. All for your blind loyalty and myopic sense of professionalism. If pervasive corruption and the strak truth don’t bother you, the soldiers are deeply affected by them.
by Victor Reyes
Military officers detained for a supposed power grab attempt in February last year have called Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. a “liar” for saying they kept secret a video tape recording in which they announced withdrawal of support from President Arroyo.
Esperon raised the issue of the videotape Friday in response to the officers’ challenge for him to tell the truth on allegations that he and other military officers helped rig the 2004 elections to ensure President Arroyo’s victory.
by Victor Reyes
Malaya
Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. has made a counter-dare to 28 officers who have challenged him to “tell the truth” on allegations that the military participated in the rigging of the 2004 elections to ensure President Arroyo’s victory.
“Why don’t they tell the truth in court?” Esperon said, referring to the officers’ plan to withdraw support from President Arroyo in February 2006, for which the officers are now facing court martial for mutiny and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, among other charges.