Thursday, January 15, 2009 Ermita refuses to attend Magdalo coup trial
EXECUTIVE Secretary Eduardo Ermita asked a Makati court hearing the coup d'etat case of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and the Magdalo Group to junk their bid to have him appear and testify for them in Thursday's hearing.
In an "Urgent Motion to Quash," Ermita told Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 Judge Oscar Pimentel that Trillanes and Magdalo's argument for him to testify is immaterial and irrelevant to the case.
"A perusal of the motion for the issuance of the subpoena ad testificandum, however, reveals that the nature of the testimony being asked of the Executive Secretary has no materiality or relevance whatsoever to the crime that the accused are being charged with," Ermita said in his motion.
"It taxes the imagination on how the Executive Secretary's testimony could have the remotest bearing to any one of the elements of the crime of coup d'etat. In all probability, the testimony being sought would just be a waste of precious time and resources of the Honorable Court and of the Executive Secretary as well," he added.
But Magdalo lawyer Ernesto Francisco Jr. said Press Secretary Jesus Dureza has already signified his intention to appear in the resumption of the trial of the five-year-old case.
Earlier, Pimentel issued subpoenas to Dureza and Ermita based on the petition of the Magdalo Group to require the two Malacañang officials to testify on various events in Mindanao that prompted the rebel soldiers to seize the Oakwood Hotel Premiere in Makati in a short-lived mutiny last July 27, 2003.
Francisco said that Dureza would be asked to testify on a supposed February 11, 2003 memorandum issued by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordering the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to capture then Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Hashim Salamat dead or alive.
The President's memorandum also orders the AFP to undertake a so-called Operation Greenbase, whereby the military must also "capture and occupy" simultaneously within one week the Buliok Complex fronting the Liguasan Marsh area comprising Kabalsalan Island Complex, Rajamuda Complex, and Buliok Complex where Salamat's headquarters or Islamic Center is located.
Malacañang has already denied the existence of the "Oplan Greenbase."
"They (referring to Dureza and Ermita) also have full knowledge of the February 2003 bloody offensive in Buliok Complex in the municipality of Pikit, North Cotabato, a former stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front which the government allegedly wanted to clear for an oil exploration project," he said.
The defense has argued that the Buliok offensive undertaken by the military last February 2003, which resulted in numerous casualties and displacement of more than 100,000 civilians triggered the Oakwood mutiny.
The state prosecutors led by Assistant State Prosecutor Richard Anthony Fadullon had objected to the defense's request and asked Pimentel to junk the motion for "utter lack of merit."
According to Fadullon, the defense is using the "Buliok defense" to delay the proceedings of the case.
The press secretary would also testify on the role of the Khadaffi Foundation on the plan to put up several projects at the Buliok Complex in Pikit, North Cotabato.
Dureza was then the presidential assistant for Mindanao and head of the government peace panel in the GRP-MILF peace talks, while Ermita was the peace adviser.
Ermita would also be asked to shed light on some questions relative to his position as then peace adviser particularly on the comprehensive peace and development efforts at the Liguasan Marsh.
The testimonies of Dureza and Ermita would support the rebel soldiers' defense that they had not planned to overthrow the Arroyo administration, and what they did was merely an expression of their grievances, said the Magdalo lawyer. (AH/Sunnex)
