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THE
Solicitor General on Thursday asked the Supreme Court
(SC) to junk the petition filed by Sen. Antonio
Trillanes IV asking that he be allowed to discharge his
duties as elected senator.
In a
28-page comment to Trillanes’s petition, Solicitor
General Agnes Devanadera insisted that the Regional
Trial Court in Makati City was correct in using as its
basis the case of former congressman Romeo Jalosjos of
Zamboanga del Norte in turning down Trillanes’s request
to attend Senate hearings and sessions as well as to
transact business at his detention cell.
Trillanes argued that unlike in his case, Jalosjos was
already convicted at the time he filed his motion. The
senator insisted that since he has not been convicted,
he still enjoys the presumption of innocence.
He
further insisted that even if he is indicted and
detained for coup d’etat, his election as senator gives
him the right to participate in the proceedings of the
Senate.
But the OSG said the difference between the case of
Jalosjos and Trillanes is only “minor and trivial.”
It noted
that the law does not look into the status of the
offended even for the purposes of determining whether
the accused should be entitled to provisional liberty.
“To say
that petitioner is more deserving of a furlough than
Jalosjos, as that he [Trillanes] surrendered and the
latter absconded, is bereft of any legal basis.
Petitioner must first prove by convincing evidence that
he is deserving of the said mitigating circumstance.”
The OSG
noted that the crime of coup d’etat is more dangerous
than the crime of rape.
Trillanes IV was visited on Thursday by two of his
colleagues in the Senate, who wanted to check on his
condition.
Opposition Sens. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and Panfilo
Lacson saw Trillanes and talked with him for two hours
at the custodial center in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Two
female senators, Loren Legarda and Consuelo Madrigal,
who were earlier reported to be planning to visit
Trillanes, did not come.
Pimentel
said Trillanes and his coaccused, including lawyer JV
Bautista, were in good physical health. He said he
advised Trillanes to stay out of trouble.
Though
he said he was not supporting any move to change the
government outside the Constitution, Pimentel said he
told Trillanes that what he did lacked in planning.
Pimentel
also said that although he still questions the
legitimacy of President Arroyo, he would never support
any extraconstitutional means to oust her.
The
National Police Commission has started a review of the
issuances of the past National Police chiefs and the
force’s “Blue Book” on operational procedures.
Interior
Secretary and Napolcom chairman Ronaldo Puno said the
commission will consider the concerns of both the
National Police and the media that were aired during
Wednesday’s dialogue on the arrest of media men who
covered the Manila Peninsula incident on November 29.
Puno
said that the dialogue was intended to enhance the
existing police operational procedures (POP) and to
define the extent of the role of media representatives
in their coverage of crisis situations to prevent the
alleged violations of their constitutional rights in
future crisis situations.
The
output of the dialogue will be incorporated in the
formulation and publication of a new manual on police
operational procedures. |
