It was most fitting that Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim’s petition before the Supreme Court, through his lawyer Vicente Verdadero, to stop the special general court martial convened to try him, Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda and 26 other marine and army officers for the alleged coup plot in February 2006, started with the statement:
“The fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution apply to all persons, including those subject to military law. It would indeed be paradoxical if military men who are called upon in times of the gravest national crises to lay down their lives in defense of peace and freedom would be the very people to be singled out for denial of the fundamental rights for which they risk their lives.”
Miranda, Lim, Col. Armando Bañez, Maj. Jose Leomar Doctolero, and Capt. William Upano, who are now detained in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, also asked the High Court for their release. The officers have been accused of either one or two or all of the following violations of the Articles of War: mutiny, disrespect towards the president, willfully disobeying order, and conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline.