Thursday, November 13, 2008 Court can’t force Honasan to testify
A MAKATI court ended speculation on whether Senator Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, the alleged “kuya” of the Magdalo Group, would testify on their behalf when it junked the plea of the junior officers Wednesday afternoon.
In an order, Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 Judge Oscar Pimentel said that Honasan cannot me made to appear before the court unless he does so “voluntarily.”
“The motion for the issuance of subpoena to Senator Gregorio ‘Gringo’ Honasan is hereby denied, unless Senator Honasan voluntarily appears by the next scheduled hearing and manifests his desire to testify,” Pimentel said.
In dismissing the petition, the court told the junior officers that the lawmaker is a former co-accused in the case and such “it is best that Honasan be allowed to testify as a voluntary witness but not to compel him to testify as a hostile witness.”
“In the same vein, a co-accused cannot be compelled to testify in favor or against his co-accused unless he voluntarily consents to testify in favor of his co-accused or against his co-accused. Thus, the motion for the issuance of subpoena to Senator Honasan should be denied,” the court added.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) junked the coup d’etat case against Honasan last year for lack of evidence.
But the court granted the request of the Magdalo Group for Press Secretary Jesus Dureza and Antonio Barros, chief of the Legislative Archives of the Senate, to appear for Thursday’s hearing.
Dureza’s testimony would center on the role of the Khadaffi Foundation on the plan to put up several projects at the Buliok Complex in Pikit, North Cotabato.
A natural gas exploration project was also planned then between the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) and the Malaysian firm Berhad.
The defense has argued that the Buliok offensive undertaken by the military last February 2003 which resulted in numerous casualties and the displacement of more than 100,000 civilians triggered the Oakwood mutiny.
Prosecutors led by Richard Anthony Fadullon had objected to the defense's request and asked Pimentel to junk the motion for "utter lack of merit," saying that the defense is using the “Buliok defense” to delay the proceedings of the five-year-old case.
Earlier, Magdalo members Eugene Louie Gonzalez, Andy Torrato, Manuel Cabochan, Arturo Pascua Jr., Jonell Sangalang, Armand Pontejo, Julius Mesa, and Cezari Yasser Gonzalez asked the court to summon Honasan to testify on their behalf.
Aside from the said junior officers, former Navy Lieutenant now Senator Antonio Trillanes IV also asked the court several months ago to call Honasan to the witness stand.
They argued that Honasan would testify that the short-lived 2003 Oakwood mutiny was no coup d’etat contrary to the allegation of the authorities.
Magdalo lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. said Honasan’s testimony would be of great significance to his clients.
“Senator Honasan will testify on the National Recovery Program (NRP) and the alleged meetings and other activities supposedly held and or conducted in connection with the instant case and that there was no plan to overthrow the government or install a junta,” said Francisco.
The NRP is Honasan’s proposed reform blueprint, which became the “Bible” of the Magdalo Group in staging the Oakwood mutiny, military and police authorities said.
Francisco said the lawmaker’s testimony would bolster their case that the NRP is not a blueprint for the overthrow of the government.
“He (Honasan) will testify that the NRP is not and never a plan to take over the government. That it is just an ordinary platform of reform,” he said. (AH/Sunnex)
