The Court of Appeals has acquitted two military officers who participated in the July 2003 Oakwood mutiny, saying their actions could not be regarded a crime of coup d’état punishable under the Revised Penal Code.
In a 21-page decision released last week, the appellate court’s Ninth Division reversed the 2013 ruling of the Makati City Regional Trial Court that found Lt. Lawrence San Juan and 1Lt. Rex Bolo guilty of committing the crime of coup d’état and sentenced them to six to 12 years in jail.
READ: 2 Magdalo officers found guilty of coup
San Juan and Bolo were not among the military officers belonging to the Magdalo group who applied for and were granted amnesty during the current and previous administrations.
The court backed the arguments of San Juan and Bolo that the prosecution failed to prove the presence of all the elements of coup d’état and that their constitutional right to equal protection was violated when Sen. Gregorio Honasan, the alleged instigator of the incident, was exonerated by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The decision, written by Justice Victoria Isabel Paredes, ruled that the third and fourth elements of the crime coup d’etat as defined under Article 135 of the RPC were not present in the case. The other division members, Justice Isaias Dicdican and Elihu Ybañez, concurred in the ruling.
Not a military camp
The third element required that the attack be “directed against duly constituted authorities of the Republic of the Philippines or any military camp or installation, communication networks, public utilities or other facilities needed for the exercise and continued possession of power.”
READ: WHAT WENT BEFORE: Oakwood Mutiny
The court noted that the Oakwood Premier Hotel (now Ascott Makati) was a first-class hotel, in Makati’s Central Business District, adding, “It is not a military camp or installation, not a form of communication network, not a public utility or a facility needed for the exercise and continued possession of power.”
The court also said the fourth element requiring “that the purpose of the attack is to seize or diminish state power” was also absent.
San Juan also successfully argued that the denial by the trial court of his plea bargain of pleading guilty to the crime of conspiracy to commit coup d’etat, which the RTC denied, did not automatically prove that coup d’etat was committed.
Freedom of speech
In the end, the justices observed, the Oakwood incident could be considered a valid and legitimate exercise by the Magdalo soldiers of their constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression.
San Juan and Bolo were among the 300 junior officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines led by then lieutenant senior grade and now senator Antonio Trillanes IV who, on July 27, 2003, occupied Oakwood to protest alleged corruption in the military and air other grievances against the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
After a 20-hour standoff, the mutineers surrendered and were charged with the crime of coup d’état. In October 2003, the DOJ indicted 31 out of the 300 original accused, including San Juan and Bolo.
Some of the Magdalo soldiers were granted conditional pardon by Arroyo in May 2008 and were appointed to government law enforcement bodies.
Others benefited from Proclamation No. 75, issued in November 2010 by President Benigno Aquino III and approved by Congress the following month, that granted amnesty to active and former personnel of the AFP and Philippine National Police who participated in the Oakwood mutiny, the 2006 “Marines Stand-Off” at Fort Bonifacio and the 2007 Manila Peninsula incident.