Sunday, December 02, 2007 Cabaero: Those who voted for Trillanes By Nini B. Cabaero Beyond 30
CESAR, 45, is a Cebu entrepreneur, a college graduate, belonging to a middle-class family and one of the over 11 million who voted for candidate Antonio Trillanes IV in the senatorial elections last May.
He was one of the reasons why Trillanes staged his latest adventure with fellow mutineers and commandeered The Peninsula (Manila) last Thursday. At least that was what Trillanes said when he voiced his justifications for walking out of his coup trial, staging a siege of the five-star Makati hotel and calling for the resignation of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Trillanes said he was an elected senator, he received over 11 million votes in the last elections, yet the government of President Arroyo denied him the right to sit in the legislative body.
Trillanes, together with other Magdalo soldiers, is facing insurrection charges for the mutiny in 2003 when they seized another upscale Makati hotel, the Oakwood, and called for soldiers to withdraw support from Arroyo. While in prison, he entered the senatorial race and conducted his campaign mostly through media interviews, blogs and websites.
He succeeded to get the votes of those who believed in his ideals, those he was able to charm with his looks and military stance, and those who agreed that he should be given a chance to make a difference within a constitutional framework. Cesar was one of those who said he voted for Trillanes so the detained mutineer could push for change within the Senate and not resort to another coup attempt. The Senate could be his own battleground, Cesar said.
Trillanes was never allowed to take his seat in the Senate because of his pending charges; he was deprived the opportunity to join colleagues in a discourse that could only be resolved through a majority vote.
But he knew when he fielded his candidacy there was no assurance he would be able to seat in the Senate. Cesar knew too that his candidate would have to face the charges whether he got elected or not. That is how the justice system works. Election does not erase criminal liability.
Trillanes’ latest military adventurism to force change through extra-constitutional means was a letdown to those like Cesar who voted for him.
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One of the pictures that came out of Malacañang following the resolution of the military siege of a hotel last Thursday showed President Arroyo smiling and applauding together with her Cabinet members.
While the incident was resolved without bloodshed and the leaders of the mutineers were arrested, it does not mean that the gripes raised by the rebels were untrue.
Others agreed that corruption in government should stop and, maybe, that Arroyo should be replaced, except they did not join Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim because it was not the alternative they wanted.
The end of the crisis should be seen by government not as a victory but as a signal that it has to respond to these gripes.
(ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)
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