Category: Feb ’06

Superiors sent men to their deaths in Basilan?

by Victor Reyes

The 28 military officers implicated in the failed power grab last February said they have an “idea” on who led the Marine contingent to their deaths in Basilan last July 10 but said they have to validate it.

Fourteen Marines died, 10 of them later beheaded, in clashes with forces from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Abu Sayyaf and lawless elements.

In a statement to media during the continuation of court martial proceedings, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, a former Marine commandant, said “all of these will come to light if there is an honest to goodness investigation so that the deaths of those Marines will not be in vain…and for the sake of the living who are still willing to offer their lives,” he said.

Malaya’s Victor reyes was in Tanay for yesterday’s court martial hearing. His report.

ABS-CBN’s story: Officers invoke right to peremptory challenge

by Thea Alberto
Inquirer.net

Camp Capinpin, Tanay – Saying there effectively no longer is an accuser against them, 28 military officers accused of plotting to unseat President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in February last year will ask the Supreme Court to junk the case against them.

“The most important point that we raised this morning is the fact that the charge sheet was signed by a certain Captain Armando Paredez who had, by the admission of the Judge Advocate [General’s] Office, already reverted to civilian status…in other words you have a charge sheet that can no longer be sustained because there is no accuser, the accuser has become a civilian and, therefore, already outside military jurisdiction,” said Francisco Chavez, legal counsel for Major General Renato Miranda, the highest-ranked accused.

by Victor Reyes
Malaya

CAMP CAPINPIN, Tanay, Rizal – Former Marine commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda’s lawyer yesterday caused the expulsion of Lt. Gen. Alexander Yano by exercising peremptory challenge against the president of the general court martial that has been trying Miranda and 27 other military officers in the last eight months for last year’s failed power grab.

Under the military justice system, all accused in a court martial have the right to peremptorily challenge any member of the tribunal without cause, a move that automatically disqualifies the challenged member.

Yano, who is the head of the Southern Luzon Command, was forced to inhibit himself. He designated Maj. Gen. Raul Caballes to take over but Caballes was himself peremptorily challenged by another accused, former Scout Ranger Regiment commander Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.

The main attraction in today’s court martial hearing in Camp Capinpin was the presence of seven Marine officers in the court room with their shaven heads in sympathy and sorrow with their fallen comrades in Basilan.

The house of Maj. Jason Aquino, who is currently detained in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, was again burglarized early this morning.

This is the third time in six months that intruders got into Aquino quarters in Camp Aguinaldo. the first time was on Feb. 3. It happened again in March 3.

Maria Fe Aquino, wife of Maj. Aquino, said she was in Tanay visiting her husband when it happened. Her household help called her up early in the morning called her up to inform her of the incident, which she immediately reported to the military camp’s security office.

This one I missed last Friday because I was assigned to be at the Erap trial at the Sandiganbayan.But here’s the report of Christine Avendaño of the Inquirer.

But one good thing, the momentum is high to insist on justice.

Lawyers of accused rebel soldiers walk out of hearing

Three days before the next hearing of the special general court martial formed to try them for their alleged withdrawal of support from the bogus president that is Gloria Arroyo in February 2006, Marine Col. Ariel Querubin went to the Supreme Court to stop the court martial proceedings of what they describe as kangaroo court.

Here’s Inquirer’s report by Tetch Torres:

Jailed Marine Colonel Ariel Querubin has asked the Supreme Court to stop his court-martial for attempted mutiny, saying the Court of Appeals abused its discretion and committed serious errors when it dismissed his plea to prevent the military from hearing his case.