The trial of the 31 junior officers belonging
to the Magdalo group charged with coup d’etat before a Makati
court in connection with their participation of the short-lived
2003 Oakwood mutiny is set to wrap up within the month with one
of the group’s core leader and a former Armed Forces chief
taking the witness stand.
Atty. Reynaldo Robles said Senator Antonio
Trillanes IV might take the witness stand during the resumption
of the hearing at the sala of Makati RTC Judge Oscar Pimentel on
January 24 or 31.
The 36-year old Trillanes was a Navy officer
when he. along with another Navy officer, James Layug, Army
Capt. Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrecampo and Marine Capt.
Gary Alejano led some 300 enlisted personnel in taking over the
Oakwood Hotel Premiere in the Makati business district.
Aside from Trillanes, Robles said they would
also present former AFP chief and Middle Easy envoy Roy Cimatu
as their last witness.
Robles said Senator Gregorio Honasan will no
longer testify.
The former Army colonel who led numerous coup
attempts against the Aquino administration was also charged with
the same offense with prosecutors saying he was the "Kuya" or
the mastermind of the Oakwood mutiny but the case was dropped by
the DOJ last May citing lack of evidence.
Honasan was supposed to testify last November
29 along with former Scout Ranger regiment commander Brig.
General Danilo Lim but he did not appear saying he had prior
commitments. The defense did not press his presence during the
subsequent hearings.
Lim’s testimony was marred by the walkout of
the Magdalo group and the takeover of the Manila Peninsula Hotel
before government troops assaulted the hotel and arrested
Trillanes, Lim and the other accused.
Robles said that Trillanes will testify that
the Oakwood incident was not a coup, contrary to the claim of
the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Cimatu who led the government panel that
negotiated with the Magdalo group on the other hand will
testify, Robles said, on the existence of an agreement that led
to the stand-down of the mutinous soldiers and the peaceful
resolution of the crisis.
The existence of the "gentleman’s agreement"
was a subject of much controversy with the defense saying that
the government violated it by filing charges against the junior
officers.
Aside from Lim, Air Force General Nestor Oban
and Navy Commodore Feliciano Ange told the court of the
existence of the agreement and said that it only called for the
prosecution of the five core leaders of the Magdalo while the
rest would be reprimanded for violation of the military’s
Articles of War.
Prior to an accident that claimed the life of
his wife and severely injured him, defense counsel Rene Saguisag
has said that a binding agreement existed with Lim, Oban and
Ange although the agreement was not reduced into writing.
Saguisag, counsel of Army Special Forces 1st
Lt. Nathaniel Rabonza has asked the court to summon Cimatu, a
representative of the daily Philippine Star in lieu of its
deceased publisher Maximo Soliven and President Arroyo to
testify.
Soliven was also part of the negotiating
panel and had criticized the Arroyo administration for reneging
on the agreement in his column. He died two years ago.
The court has granted Saguisag’s request save
for the appearance of Mrs. Arroyo. The Star has already
submitted before the court copies of Soliven’s column.
But Assistant State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon who
led the prosecution team said the agreement did not preclude the
DOJ from filing cases against the Magdalo group. –Ashzel
Hachero
