BY EVANGELINE DE VERA

THE Supreme Court yesterday unanimously dismissed the petition of detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV seeking to be allowed to attend to his official functions and duties and to receive members of his staff at the Marine Brig in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig.

In a 16-page decision penned by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, the SC en banc affirmed the earlier ruling of Makati Judge Oscar Pimentel that denied Trillanes' arguments on the ground he is a flight risk.

Trillanes is facing a coup d'état charge before the Makati court for leading, along with other junior officers, the Oakwood mutiny in 2003 when he was still a Navy lieutenant. He has asked to be allowed to attend Senate sessions and other plenary or committee hearings, receive members of his staff in his place of detention, and give media interviews.

The tribunal, in calling him a flight risk, cited the standoff at the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City last November.

The high court also said the determination of whether the evidence of guilt against Trillanes is strong lies with the trial court, thus justifying his detention as a valid curtailment of his right to provisional liberty.

It further said Trillanes' reliance on the case of rape convict Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo Jalosjos, who filed a similar motion with the trial court, cannot be given merit because their cases are similar only with respect to the application of the presumption of innocence during the resolution of their motions.

It said the court, in the Jalosjos case, did not say that the presumption of innocence no longer operates in favor of the accused pending the review on appeal of the judgment of conviction.

"The rule stands that until a promulgation of final conviction is made, the constitutional mandate of presumption of innocence prevails," the SC said.

Pimentel, in junking Trillanes' motion in July last year, said the Marine Brig is a high security detention facility, not a civilian government office where Senate staff and assistants, who are not detainees, can come and go or hold office.