Trillanes not keen on nailing Binay

MANILA, Philippines—Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has no intention of executing an affidavit attesting to the role of Vice President Jejomar Binay, then the mayor of Makati City, in the Peninsula Manila hotel siege in 2007.

Trillanes said he had long moved on from that incident seven years ago, for which and other rebel soldiers known as the Magdalo group had been pardoned by President Benigno Aquino III.

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS

“It’s water under the bridge,” Trillanes told reporters after his inspection of the P1.3-billion Makati Science High School in Makati City.

Binay could face charges of conspiracy to commit rebellion if Trillanes would execute an affidavit attesting to the former Makati mayor’s role in the alleged attempt to overthrow the administration of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago said Friday.

Trillanes last week claimed that Binay had conspired with the Magdalo soldiers to oust Arroyo.

But he said that Binay failed to deliver on his promise to deliver a crowd of supporters to back the soldiers who had walked out of a court hearing on the rebellion charges against them. The soldiers were forced to hole up at the Peninsula Manila hotel before they were made to surrender.

Binay’s camp dismissed Trillanes’ claim, accusing him of rewriting history with a revisionist version of the siege. TJ Burgonio