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MILITARY
prosecutors agreed on Thursday to review the charges
that the Armed Forces lodged against 28 officers in a
move that surprised the respondents themselves and
prompted their lawyers to say that the military
leadership is “softening.”
At the
same time, General Court Martial 2 headed by Maj. Gen.
Jogy Leo Fojas partially arraigned former Maj. Gen.
Renato Miranda, former Marines commandant, on mutiny
charges, after his military defense counsel Col. Basilio
Pooten moved for the dismissal of the charges.
Pooten
said there is no evidence to support the mutiny charges
against Miranda and 27 other officers including the
former Army Scout Ranger commander, Brig. Gen. Danilo
Lim, who were allegedly involved in the February 2006
mutiny plot, and as such, the case should be withdrawn.
Defense
lawyers said Pooten’s motion was in the form of “no
prosecution,” but Maj. Edgardo Abad, a member of the
trial judge advocate panel, said such move, under the
court martial manual, should come from the prosecution.
“It’s
not [a] motion for no prosecution but a motion to
dismiss,” Abad said, who claimed that the trial judge
advocate panel was not slighted by Pooten’s move.
“It’s a
show of good faith. This is the proper time to file such
motion,” he said, when asked why the prosecution
suddenly softened on its stand against the military
officers by not opposing the motion.
The
arraignment of Miranda was not completed as Pooten
raised the motion immediately after the charges against
the former Marine commandant were read.
Miranda
was not able to make his plea after the reading of the
charges.
Pooten
said the mutiny case against the 28 officers should be
dismissed because there is no evidence to support it, as
it was not even mentioned in the pretrial investigation
report, which became the basis for the filing of the
charges.
He noted
that instead, the report even recommended the dropping
of charges against the officers, but was reversed by the
Armed Forces chief of staff, Gen. Hermogenes Esperon
Jr., when the report was submitted to him.
The
military defense counsel said the court should dismiss
the charges and allow the “illustrious” officers to
continue serving the country.
Defense
lawyers observed that the pretrial report, which was
used as the basis in the convening of the military
tribunal headed by Fojas, was not even signed by Esperon
as legally required.
With the
motion of Pooten, the chief military prosecutor, Col.
Feliciano Loy, asked the court martial to give the
prosecutors time to review again the record of the
charges and make recommendations to Esperon, who is the
court martial’s convening authority.
During
the same hearing, the defense succeeded in forcing court
martial member Brig. Gen Rolando Capacia to recuse from
the case. He was replaced by Brig. Gen. Gilbert Abanto. |
