Querubin, Faeldon lead ex-mutineers in pledging allegiance to PHL Charter

(Updated 2:07 p.m.) Former Marine Col. Ariel Querubin and Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon on Monday led some 100 ex-mutineers who availed of the government's amnesty program in pledging their allegiance to the Philippine Constitution. A total of 135 ex-mutineers took their oaths of allegiance to complete the amnesty process at 7 a.m. Monday during the flag ceremony at the military headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City. "Binigyan na naman tayo ng pagkakataon na makabalik sa mainstream society. Ngayon, pwede ko na sabihin na tunay tayong partners in nation-building," Querubin said in an interview aired over GMA News TV. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and military chief Gen. Eduardo Oban Jr. were present during the oath-taking ceremony. "They [the rebel soldiers] were once part of the organization and it is really fulfilling to have them back in our society," Oban said in a separate interview. The 135 rebel soldiers who took their oaths were among the 280 ex-mutineers whose applications were approved by the Amnesty Committee of the Department of National Defense. The applicants, who participated in three attempts to overthrow the Arroyo administration, were pardoned after President Benigno Aquino III signed a proclamation last October granting amnesty to the ex-mutineers. A first batch had already taken their oaths, including Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Navy officer who took part in the Oakwood Mutiny in July 2003 and the Nov. 2007 Peninsula Manila hotel siege in Makati City. — with a report from Andreo Calonzo/RSJ, GMA News