A MAKATI court hearing the coup d'etat charges against the
Magdalo soldiers who mounted the 2003 Oakwood mutiny yesterday ordered the
release of Air Force 1Lt. Francisco Ashley Acedillo after posting bail.
Acedillo, along with 10 other officers from the Marines, Navy
and Air Force, had changed his plea from not guilty to guilty during court
martial proceedings last June 10 in the charge of violating Article of War 96
(conduct unbecoming) and had been ordered discharged from the military service.
The discharge order is still awaiting approval of President Arroyo.
Acedillo posted bail right after Presiding Judge Oscar
Pimentel approved his request to cut his bail of P100,000 by half. A helicopter
pilot and member of Batch 1999 of the Philippine Military Academy, Acedillo did
not join the walkout staged by former Navy Lt. Antonio Trillanes from Judge
Oscar Pimentel's court and the subsequent call for Arroyo's ouster at the Manila
Peninsula hotel last Nov. 29. - Ashzel Hachero
AFTER raging for more than 16 hours Thursday within Welcomm
Plaza (formerly Masagana) in Pasay City, flames from the burned-out building
that also houses a Pure Gold supermarket crossed over to nearby shanties the
next day and left some 50 families homeless.
The Pasay Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) declared "fire out"
at around 7 pm Thursday at the Welcomm mall at the corner of Taft Avenue and
Libertad Street. But Mayor Wenceslao Trinidad said another fire broke out at
3:40 am Friday at the residential area in Barangay 94 which was directly behind
Welcomm. Trinidad said it appeared that a portion of the mall's still-hot
firewall collapsed on the neighboring homes, rekindling the fire.
Nobody was reported injured but among the 10 houses destroyed by the Friday
blaze was the home of Barangay chairman Jimbo Palomares. Another "fire out" was
declared shortly before 6 am after almost three hours' work by firefighters and
volunteers. The fire victims are temporarily sheltered at the Padre Zamora
Elementary School with relief supplies provided them by the local welfare office
and the city government. - Ashzel Hachero
