What Went Before: Trillanes’ 2nd try to oust Arroyo

Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Antonio Trillanes IV, along with Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and other Magdalo soldiers, walked out on Nov. 29, 2007, of their trial proceedings at the Makati Regional Trial Court for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and proceeded to the Manila Peninsula Hotel.

It was the second attempt of Trillanes, a former Navy officer, to overthrow the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Trillanes surrendered after seven hours. He was subsequently charged with rebellion and imprisoned.

However, Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon and three other Magdalo soldiers involved in the failed revolt managed to escape from the five-star hotel just before police stormed it and arrested Trillanes, Lim and company.

The Philippine National Police has identified one of the men as a Corporal Elmer Colon, an employee of the Makati City government. He was seen on TV with Trillanes and Lim wearing a black camouflage uniform and a wig.

In response, then Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay ordered an inquiry into the purported participation of City Hall employees in the failed revolt.

The mayor wrote a letter to then PNP Director General Avelino Razon in which he said one Elmer Colon was indeed employed as a “job order security guard.”

“Colon did not report for work on Nov. 29 and was later seen at the Manila Peninsula,” Binay said.

He also cited reports that other City Hall employees were at the Peninsula during the Magdalo takeover.

“I have ordered our human resources development officers to go over the list of individuals arrested by the police and who are detained at Camp Crame,” Binay said.

In February 2010, Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati RTC Branch 150 granted Trillanes, Lim and the arrested Magdalo soldiers P200,000 bail in connection with the rebellion charge. But they remained in detention pending resolution of the coup d’etat charge for the Oakwood mutiny.

Faeldon surrendered to the military in July 2010.

While in prison, Trillanes ran for senator on the opposition ticket in 2007 and won.

In September 2010, 17 senators, including then Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Sen. Gregorio Honasan II, signed Senate Resolution No. 217 urging President Aquino to grant amnesty to Trillanes and other soldiers jailed for involvement in failed uprisings against the Arroyo administration.

By November 2010, Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation No. 75 granting amnesty to soldiers, police officers and civilians charged in three failed coups against the Arroyo administration.

Under the terms of the amnesty, rebel soldiers had to admit that their participation in the July 2003 Oakwood mutiny, the February 2006 Marine standoff and the November 2007 Manila Peninsula siege was in violation of the Constitution, the Revised Penal Code and the military’s Articles of War.

In January 2011, Trillanes formally applied for amnesty and the Department of National Defense approved his application along with 37 other former officers charged in the three military uprisings.

Lim and Faeldon were granted amnesty the same year.–Inquirer Research