(Editor’s note: A news story published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on Jan. 6, 2011, reported that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and 18 other rebel soldiers who mounted three coup attempts in 2003, 2006, and 2007 applied for amnesty offered by former President Benigno Aquino III. Below is the copy of the story written by Dona Pazzibugan.)
Trillanes, 18 other rebel soldiers apply for amnesty
By Dona Pazzibugan
Philippine Daily Inquirer January 6, 2011 Page A2
SEN. ANTONIO Trillanes IV and 18 rebel officers who mounted the failed July 27, 2003 coup, known as the Oakwood mutiny, have formally applied for amnesty offered by President Aquino to rebel soldiers, policemen and civilians who participated in three attempts to bring down the Arroyo government in 2003, 2006 and 2007.
The renegade officers, members of the self-styled Magdalo group, personally turned in their amnesty applications to the defense department’s ad hoc amnesty committee at Camp Aguinaldo.
Trillanes later told reporters they had complied with the amnesty proclamation’s requirement that they admit to having violated the Constitution and civilian and military laws, and to give a narration of their participation in the uprisings.
Mr Aquino’s Proclamation 75 offers amnesty to soldiers, policemen and civilian supporters implicated in the July 2003 failed coup, the February 2006 attempted military withdrawal of support and Marine stand-off and the November 2007 siege of the Manila Peninsula.
The application carried the following admission: “I hereby acknowledge my involvement/participation in the subject incidents constituted a violation of the 1987 Constitution, criminal laws and the Articles of War. I hereby recant my previous statements that are contrary, if any, to this express admission of involvement/participation and guilt.”
Trillanes said there was no conflict between signing the general admission of guilt and “what they believed in.”
“We have violated something, we have violated some rules and we are man enough to admit to that,” he said.
But he stressed that the admission of guilt was “definitely not” an expression of regret, apology or vindication of the Arroyo administration from accusations of corruption and election cheating.