DOJ won’t bar Trillanes from filing candidacy at Comelec
01/17/2007 | 05:16 PM
What it vowed to oppose in the case of former senator Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan, it granted to detained mutineer Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV.On Wednesday, Trillanes’ camp said government prosecutors had posed no objection to the junior officer’s request for him to personally file his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections office in Manila.
Trillanes had said he planned to seek a Senate seat in this year’s May mid-term elections.
The statement was released by the Chan Robles and Associates law firm, which is handling Trillanes’ coup d’ etat case pending before the Makati regional trial court.
On January 7, Trillanes requested presiding Judge Oscar Pimentel of Branch 148 to allow him to personally file his COC at the Comelec head office in Manila between anytime during the first week of February.
In their comment to Trillanes' motion, assistant chief state prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon and State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera ask the court to grant the detained officer a leave of court to file his COC on February 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. only.
They added that Trillanes should be escorted by an adequate number of escorts from the Philippine Marines to, and from the Comelec head office.
The prosecutors also asked the court to direct Trillanes to refrain from discussing the merits of his case with members of the press, avoid any form of premature campaigning and from issuing inflammatory and seditious statements against the government.
The military officer, through his counsel, lawyer Reynaldo Robles, thanked the prosecutors for not opposing his motion saying he is amenable to their other recommendations and suggestions.
Still, Robles requested that the date of the proposed leave be moved from February 3, which is a Saturday, to either February 6 or February 7, saying they are not sure whether the Comelec is open on Saturdays.
On Tuesday, Honasan filed a motion also before the Makati regional trial court asking that he be allowed to personally file his COC before the Comelec.
But the DOJ, through Navera, vowed to oppose Honasan’s request, describing the former senator as a "flight risk."
Incidentally, Honasan is detained at Fort Sto. Domingo in Laguna province in connection with the coup d’ etat charges filed against him and six other civilians for their alleged involvement in the short-lived July 27, 2003 mutiny.
Trillanes is one of the leaders of the mutinous Magdalo group. - GMANews.TV
