Category: Feb ’06

by Gigi de Vera

Military officials tagged in last year’s failed coup plot against President Arroyo yesterday asked the Supreme Court to order their release from detention and to stop the court martial proceedings against them.

Marine Major Gen. Renato Miranda and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, Army First Scout Ranger Regiment commander, filed a petition for certiorari, prohibition and habeas corpus before the SC against AFP chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and the Special General Court Martial No. 2 (SGCM2), which ordered their detention for alleged violation of the Articles of War.

Malaya’s story by Victor Reyes. Click here. For the second time in a month, the quarters of detained Army Maj. Jason Aquino in Camp Aguinaldo…

Esperon thinks he is above the law; that he is not obliged to follow it;that his prerogative is absolute.Who does he think he is, a king?

Following story by Malaya’s Victor Reyes:

Armed Forces chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon Jr. today told lawyers of the Army and Marine officers implicated in last year’s failed power grab to sue him before the courts for ordering their clients’ court martial.

Esperon issued the challenge as he confirmed that a pre-trial investigation panel recommended the dropping of the charge of violation of Article of War 67 (mutiny) for lack of evidence.

The panel recommended the trial of the officers for the lower offenses of violation of AW 96 (conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman) and AW 97 (conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline).

This Esperon is perverse. He subjected Capt. Dante Langkit to severe pressure by confining him to solitary confinement for 10 months. Now the young officer has apologized for his involvement in the Feb. 2006 and is asking for permission to be permitted to campaign because he is running under the Genuine Opposition for a congressional seat. He says he has forgiven Langkit. If that’s a source of satisfaction for Esperon, he is perverse. Click here for ABS-CBN story.

Update on Langkit’s letter to Esperon. Click here.

Detained Capt. Dante Langkit is contemplating running for the lone congressional seat in his home province of Kalinga.

He wrote AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon today asking permission to campaign.

Langkit is implicated in the alleged Feb. 2006 coup plot against Gloria Arroyo. He went AWOL sometime in January 2006 and arrested three months after.

Until two weeks ago, he was held in solitary confinement and pressured to turn witness for the government. <

Such a simple act as transfer of detained officers and AFP Chief of Staff Hermogenes Esperon had to do it in a deceitful manner.

The detained marine officers involved in the February 2006 aborted withdrawal of support had learned about the order to transfer to Tanay two weeks ago and they have come to terms with it. In fact, they have started packing Monday night. But when they were fetched for the hearing this morning, there was no military truck to transport their things. So they assumed the order was off.

In the middle of the hearing, they were informed that order for their immediate order was faxed to Cavite. They were not allowed to return anymore to Cavite even to get their things. Two of them,Col. Achilles Segumallian and Major Francisco Domingo Fernandez were given the task of getting all the detainees’ things from Cavite and Fort Bonifacio. Lt. Belinda Ferrer, the lone lady detainee, who was the aide of Gen. Miranda ,was allowed to pick up her own things from Fort Bonifacio.

Here’s Victor Reyes’ report in Malaya:

Eight Marine officers, including former commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, and an Army captain were detained yesterday in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, headquarters of the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, after attending court martial proceedings at the camp.

Here’s Inquirer report on what happened in the courtmartial hearing of 28 officers involved in the alleged February 2006 coup plot.

Click here for the much-requested Pre-Trial Investigation Report.

A military court on Tuesday acceded to demands of 28 Army Scout Ranger and Marine officers facing mutiny charges that they be furnished copies of the pre-trial investigation (PTI) report, which was the basis used by the Armed Forces chief of staff to order them tried.

THE quarters of detained Army Maj. Jason Aquino in Camp Aguinaldo was ransacked Saturday noon by unidentified persons who carted away a military-issued baby Armalite and a laptop computer, among other items.

Aquino’s wife, Maria Fe, said nobody was home when the intrusion happened because she and her daughters left the house at about 10 a.m. They were surprised to see their things scattered when they returned about 2 p.m.

“I don’t believe it’s a simple theft,” she said, saying their family quarters, Unit 668 on Arevalo street, is inside a military camp. The compound with 10 units has only one entry and exit gate with a guard post outside.