Activist groups hail Trillanes win

Activist groups on Friday hailed the proclamation of Oakwood mutiny leader Antonio Trillanes IV as the 11th winning senatorial candidate. The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said Trillanes’ victory was a slap on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and of Armed Forces chief General Hermogenes Esperon. "The votes for Trillanes are undoubtedly votes against the Arroyo regime. He is the most vocal in calling for the ouster of Arroyo," Bayan chair Carol Araullo said in a statement. Detained Anakpawis Representative Crispin Beltran urged Trillanes to fight corruption in the government and the military. "Having won the support of the Filipino people despite a low-budget, severely-limited electoral campaign, it is evident that Trillanes campaign calls against the Arroyo government's corruption and illegitimacy were highly effective. We expect Senator Trillanes to follow through on his promises to ferret out corruption in government, including the Armed Forces of the Philippines," Beltran said in a statement. The militant lawmaker urged Trillanes to make the fight for the repeal of the Human Security Act, or the anti-terrorism law, as among his top priorities. Beltran, also a long-time leader of the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno, has been in “hospital arrest" at the Philippine Heart Center in Quezon City for more than a year for rebellion charges. Another labor group also hailed Trillanes as a “modern-day rebel with a cause". “The workers greet with approval the proclamation of Sonny Trillanes as senator-elect. A fighter in the halls of the Senate is a novelty that should rock that trapo-dominated boat," the Partido ng Manggawa said in a statement. “We believe workers, together with the people, supported the campaign of Trillanes because they found him credible as a modern-day rebel with a cause. The workers expect Trillanes to take up the cause of the workers as much as of the soldiers and the people," the PM added. PM also backed Trillanes’ call for an investigation of “death squads" and the Armed Forces leadership’s supposed involvement, citing the assassination of former rebel Filemon "Popoy" Lagman and four union presidents affiliated with the group in the past six years. Trillanes, who ran under the Genuine Opposition, is a former Navy Lieutenant senior-grade who was among the leaders of some 300 soldiers belonging to the Magdalo group that took over the posh Oakwood Premier Suites in Makati's central business district on July 27, 2003, supposedly to dramatize their protest of corruption in government and the military. The Commission on Elections on Friday morning proclaimed Trillanes as senator-elect in a cermony at the poll body's main office in Intramuros, Manila. The seventh GO bet to officially bag a spot in the 12 contested Senate seats, he has been detained since the 2003 mutiny while facing charges before a court martial and a Makati court. -GMANews.TV