Tuesday, May 20, 2008 Court allows detained mutineer to attend own wedding
A MAKATI court has granted the request of a Marine officer detained for his participation in the short-lived 2003 Oakwood mutiny and last year's Manila Peninsula Hotel standoff for temporary leave of court to go to his wedding.
Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 Judge Oscar Pimentel allowed Marine 2nd Lieutenant Jonnel Sangalang to be present at his wedding at 3 p.m. on May 31.
A graduate of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) and a member of the elite Marine Force Recon Company, the 31-year-old junior officer is facing charges of coup d'etat before Pimentel's sala for his participation in the mutiny.
Sangalang, along with 300 other junior officers and enlisted military personnel, seized the Oakwood Hotel Premiere (now Ascott Hotel) on the early morning of July 27, 2003 triggering a tense standoff with government troops before the situation was defused.
He is also facing a separate case of rebellion along with other Magdalo members, including detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, for last year's standoff before the Makati RTC Branch 150.
Sangalang will marry his girlfriend of five years, Marejane Molino.
The mutineer's lawyer, Reynaldo Robles, said the romance between the two started before the Oakwood mutiny and has blossomed over the years despite the distance and separation.
While Sangalang and other Magdalo members were detained at various military camps, his fiancée was working in Canada as a manager of fast food restaurant McDonald's.
The wedding will be held at the St. Joseph Chapel inside the Philippine National Police (PNP) headquarters at Camp Crame while the wedding reception is at the Multi-Purpose Building inside the same camp from 5-8 p.m.
The chapel is only a few meters away from the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center where the Magdalo soldiers are detained.
Sangalang also asked the court he be allowed to spend his "honeymoon" with his bride at the Holiday Inn-Galleria Suites Hotel at Robinson's Galleria in Pasig City from May 31 to June 2.
Robles said the couple wanted to spend a few nights together since after the wedding, the bride is going to return to her work abroad.
But prosecutors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) led by Assistant State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon objected to the motion for him to spend his wedding night outside of the PNP headquarters citing security concerns.
"The prosecutors objected on the ground of security concerns and his participation in last year's standoff so we asked and the court granted that he be allowed to spend his wedding night at the Kianaga Hall inside Camp Crame," Robles said.
Asked if Trillanes was among the invited guests, Robles said he was but he doubted the authorities would allow him to attend.
"I'm sure he was invited along with the other Magdalo members who were already released from detention but I am not sure if the senator would be allowed by the authorities," he said.
The lawyer refused to answer whether the group of Army Captains Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrecampo who were recently released after being pardoned by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo are also invited.
Gambala's group has a falling-out with Trillanes' group, considered the "hand-line" faction of the Magdalo. (AH/Sunnex)
