Category: Magdalo

What Duterte’s henchmen have come up with against Trillanes

Published by Ellen on October 21, 2019

Then senator Antonio Trillanes IV, flanked by Se. Franklin Drilon and Sen. Risa Hontiveros, when Pres. Duterte tried to nullify the amnesty granted him by President Benigno Aquino III.

If all that President Duterte’s henchmen can come up with against former senator Antonio Trillanes IV is Guillermina Barrido, that means they have scraped the bottom of the barrel and found nothing.

The preliminary hearing resumes Oct. 22 and it is interesting to see what fiction and invention Duterte and his minions have again produced.

Duterte’s con artists tried fake bank accounts and it was Duterte that they conned. Trillanes was able to debunk them by getting a certification from the banks mentioned in the documents.

Duterte tried dragging in Trillanes sick mother in the Napoles helmet scam but records in the Sandiganbayan of the case never mentioned her name.

Trillanes has joined the academe after his stint in the Senate. It’s a quieter life compared to the years after he and a group your military officers decided to make a stand against corruption in the government of Gloria M. Arroyo in what is known as the Oakwood mutiny on July 27, 2003.

Duterte sidesteps health query, focuses on Trillanes

Published by Ellen on September 11, 2018

Pres. Duterte and Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo in a tête-à-tête , Sept. 11, 2018

There were two things that stood out in President Duterte’s one-hour-and-a-half hour tête-à-tête with Presidential Legal Counsel Sal Panelo: he didn’t want to talk about his health and he is obsessed with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

After about ten minutes of monologue defending his attempt to nullify the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV by then President Benigno Aquino III Panelo wanted to talk about his health: “Puntahan naman natin ang mga agam-a gam ng taumbayan kasama na ang critics nyo na si Joma Sison. Sinasabi na kayo ay may sakit. Ano po ang masasabi nyo tungkol sa inyong kalusugan para marnig ng taumbayan?”

Duterte’s answer was about the alleged conspiracy of the Community Party of the Philippines and the Magdalo to topple him: “Alam nyo itong si Sison, pati itong Magdalo, pati itong ayaw sa akin, yung talagang hindi tumanggap sa akin ever since noong election, they have combined and we have the evidence and we have the conversation provided by a foreign country sympathetic to us. We don’t have the sophistication but the connections will be shown maybe any day now. I asked that it be declassified at ipakita nila sa lahat. Nahihigop lahat . They were in constant communication.

Panelo tried to stir back the conversation to the President’s health: “Sa punto po ng kalusugan, talagang malusog na malusog kayo, nakikita ng mga tao.”

Duterte didn’t comment.

Duterte loses to Trillanes

Published by Ellen on September 9, 2018

Duterte’s plan to have Trillanes put back in jail has backfired.

By Segundo Eclar Romero

Duterte has set the stage for sacrificing Jose Calida. He has said he issued Presidential Proclamation 572 on the say so or Calida as Solicitor-General. Duterte, of course, knows that targeting Trillanes was a joint project between him and Calida. They both hated the Senator, and would take the first opportunity, no matter how clumsy, to neutralize him. Calida has in a sense borrowed Presidential Powers with the President’s complicity to try to extricate himself from the charge of conflict of interest in the way his security agency business cornered government contracts. It was a long shot, but Duterte has a way out — he could always put the entire blame on Calida, if the plan backfires.

Of course the plan has backfired. It has been so indefensible at its face value that no one was willing to lay his reputation on the line for the revocation of the amnesty. Calida clumsily tried to distance himself from the amnesty revocation action, saying with a straight face before media that he had nothing to do with it. But the DND and AFP who did not want to be left holding the bag pointed to Calida as the prime mover. He had tried to get the AFP and DND unnecessarily compromised in the caper, trying to dupe the AFP into arresting Trillanes without a proper warrant.

So now Duterte is poised to cut Calida loose, unless either of the two RTCs and the Supreme Court sustain Calida and Duterte and issue a warrant, or, in the case of the Supreme Court, refuse to issue a TRO against the arrest.

A Christmas tribute to Trillanes

Published by Ellen on September 6, 2018

This article was first published on Dec. 23, 2010

by Harry Roque

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV holds his first press conference in the Senate after his release from a 7-year detention.

I was ambivalent when I first saw Antonio Trillanes IV on television. But there he was, a very young man, taking a clear and unequivocal stand against evil in government. My ambivalence may have something to do with four years of brainwashing called law school.

Like military cadets, we were brainwashed to think that the Constitution was supreme and that change had to be through constitutional means. Never mind that as a freshman at the UP College of Law in 1986, we had no Constitution to study but for a two-page document known as the freedom constitution. Never mind too that we started our law studies with a brand new extra-constitutional regime that was the regime of Corazon Cojuanco-Aquino.

Perhaps, the ambivalence may have been due to the many coups staged against Mrs. Aquino, a regime that I was willing to die for. There too is the fact that as a high school activist, I once told a group of PMAers who hitched a ride with my family in Baguio that I hoped that they would not end up being fascists.

Magdalo: No affiliation with Maute

Published by Ellen on May 28, 2017

Update May 31, 2017:

Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV
“During the security briefing, I asked Sec. Lorenzana based on their intel reports, if I or the Magdalo group is linked in any way with the Maute? He answered, ‘No, Mr. Senator. Na receive din namin ang information na galing daw kay Abe Purugganan. Hindi totoo yun. Hindi namin pinansin yun.'”

Rep. Gary C. Alejano when he filed impeachment complaint against President Duterte last March.

Rep. Gary C. Alejano of the Magdalo Party-list denounced as malicious and irresponsible the reports being spread by a former undersecretary in the Arroyo administration linking their organization to the Maute Group whose terrorist campaign in Marawi City President Duterte said compelled him to declare Martial Law in Mindanao on May 23.

“This is the height of irresponsibility of those involved in spreading this fake and malicious information especially in this trying times when our brothers and sisters in Marawi need all the support from the Filipino people. I categorically deny that Magdalo is involved in any terroristic acts or is affiliated with any terrorist groups. The intelligence community could affirm this as we have constant engagements with them,” Alejano, speaking for the group, said in a statement.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the officials of the political organization, said “it is obviously a black propaganda, a very vicious one.” He said he will address the issue after a scheduled briefing by military officials for senators on Monday.

Soldier turned legislator Gary Alejano’s concerns on the BBL

Published by Ellen on June 26, 2015

Rep. Gary Alejano interpellating during the deliberations on BBL.

No one was surprised that the Supreme Court junked the petition questioning the legality of the Bangsamoro Basic Law which was still being deliberated by both chambers of Congress when it adjourned sine die last June 11.

The BBL missed its timetable of the Senate and House of Representatives passing it by June 11.

Supporters of the legislation which promises lasting peace for Muslim Filipinos and the country are hopeful that the resumption of the deliberations on the bill after President Aquino’s last State of the Nation Address on July 17 would lead to bill’s eventual passage into a law.

When that time comes, more groups will be questioning it before the Supreme Court.

Before the adjournment of the House of Representatives, Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano raised valid issues during his interpellation of Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, one of the vice chairs Hoc Committee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law.

Magdalo: 10 years after Oakwood

Published by Ellen on July 28, 2013

July 27, 2003. Ltsg Antonio Trillanes IV and Capt. Gerry Gambala led the protest against Gloria Arroyo at Oakwood Hotel.

No doubt, the Magdalo group of military officers and soldiers has come a long way from that early morning of July 27, 2003 when they jolted the nation with the protest they staged against Gloria Arroyo at Oakwood Hotel in the heart of Makati’s business district.

So many things have happened. Even the name of the hotel has changed. It’s now Ascott Hotel and Oakwood has moved to Pasig City.

Last Monday, after the traditional State of the Nation Address by the president at the opening of Congress, new members of the House of Representatives Gary Alejano and Ashley Acedillo invited relatives and close friends to a thanksgiving dinner at Lexington Gardens in Pasig.

Alejano and Acedillo belong to the Magdalo partylist which represents some 200,000 former and retired military and police personnel, urban poor, and the youth from all over the country.

Re-elected senator Antonio Trillanes IV was there.

Mother Lily, Trillanes at Magdalo

Published by Ellen on May 26, 2013

Sen. Sonny Trillanes and wife, Arlene with Mother Lily.

Nakakatuwa si Mother Lily Monteverde sa kanyang “thank you lunch” noong Biyernes para kay Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV at sa Magdalo partylist at ang kanilang dalawang nominees na magiging miyembro na ng Kongreso: dating Marine Capt. Gary Alejano at Air Force Lieutenant Francisco Ashley Acedillo.

Si Trillanes kasi ang isa sa ilang kandidato para senador na inindorso ni Mother Lily. Kasama sa kanyang inindorso ang tatlong topnotchers na si Grace Poe, Loren Legarda, Alan Cayetano at Chiz Escudero.

Sabi ni Mother Lily, “Alam nyo ba kung bakit naka-mini skirt ako?” At talaga naman blooming si Mother na kamakalian lang ay napabalitang lumalaban sa lung cancer.

I don’t own condo units in Twin Oaks – Trillanes

Published by Ellen on May 8, 2012

Trillanes-at-hearing — Victim of malicious reporting

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has issued the following statement regarding the rumor that he owns condo units in Mandaluyong:

“ Last 18 April 2012, Mr. Arnold Clavio alluded to me in his radio program over DZBB as the buyer of two condominium units in Twin Oaks at Shaw Blvd, Mandaluyong City amounting to seven million pesos each. This was the same subject of the column of Mr. Jojo Robles in Manila Standard on the same day and the radio program of Mr. Deo Macalma on 19 April 2012.

“ In response to these obviously well-orchestrated and malicious reports masquerading as blind items, I hereby categorically deny that I have bought a unit or units at the Twin Oaks Condominium, Mandaluyong City. I further state that I do not have any property not declared in my Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN).

Trillanes: “Mla Pen happened for a higher reason that is still unfolding”

Published by Ellen on November 29, 2011

Some “survivors” of what media calls the Nov. 29, 2007 “Manila Peninsula siege” got together with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV (no, not at the Manila Pen).

Yesterday’s reunion had an added significance in the sense that Trillanes, Brig. Gen. (ret.) Danny Lim and other members of the Magdalo, who dared take on Gloria Arroyo at the height of her power, are now free. Trillanes is serving his electoral mandate in the Senate and Lim is deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Customs.

And Arroyo, their jailer?

It is now being debated whether she should be granted her request for a house arrest or be confined at a government facility. She has been charged with electoral sabotage in the 2007 election, a crime punishable by a life sentence and bail is not recommended.