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Saturday, June 23, 2007
Justice head drops coup raps against Honasan
MANILA -- Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. on Friday dropped a coup charge against senator-elect Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan in connection with a short-lived mutiny in 2003.
He, however, reaffirmed the coup case against senator-elect Antonio Trillanes IV and other junior military officers who in July 2003 briefly occupied the ritzy Oakwood apartment-hotel in Makati City and demanded President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's resignation for alleged corruption.
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Gonzalez, in a turnaround from an earlier position, said there was no evidence to suggest Honasan was directly involved in the mutiny. The justice chief's decision reversed the finding of probable cause against Honasan by a Department of Justice (DOJ) panel of prosecutors.
Announcing his decision, Gonzalez said, "In the first place, Mr. Honasan, while mentioned as some sort of instigator along the way, was never at Oakwood himself."
Gonzales said certain statements, lectures and a blood pact with the mutineers had been attributed to Honasan - "but there was never any evidence that he was a part of what happened."
Resolving Honasan's petition for review, Gonzales said the lack of sufficient evidence against the senator-elect warranted the withdrawal of the coup case filed against him before the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC).
Honasan, a former army colonel re-elected senator in May 14 elections, was also charged with rebellion for alleged involvement in a foiled coup plot in February 2006. However, the Supreme Court stopped the Justice Department from prosecuting that case.
Gonzales said he also gave merit to Honasan's claim that he arrived at the hotel together with Senator Rodolfo Biazon, then senator Vicente "Tito" Sotto III, and then environment secretary Michael Defensor to persuade the junior officers to lay down their arms.
According to Gonzales, even the advocacy for the use of arms and violent means to achieve the ends of Honasan's National Recovery Program (NRP) is covered by his freedom of speech.
The justice chief said he expects his resolution on Honasan's case to be taken as having political undertones. "Any resolution is always controversial. People may not like it; some people may like it. So this kind of a resolution will certainly have political undertones in it. We have to be prepared to defend it on its face," he said.
Gonzalez said the dropping of the charges would not affect the case against Trillanes, who also won a Senate seat while in military detention for the 2003 mutiny.
"It will have no effect, because the situation of Trillanes is different," Gonzalez said. "He was clearly part and parcel of what happened at Oakwood itself."
Unlike Honasan, who met with Arroyo last month to plead his case and who promised not to wage any more coup attempts, Trillanes has called for Arroyo's ouster and said he would like to see her impeached.
At Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said they support the justice chief's decision to drop the coup charge against Honasan.
Ermita said they will go with whatever decision the department makes since it is handling the case.
According to Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, the justice department based its decision on the evidence at hand and it obviously saw that the case was weak.
Honasan rose to fame as a key military leader in an attempt to oust late dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. That uprising failed, but triggered massive protests that led to Marcos's fall.
But Honasan, 59, also turned against Marcos' successor, Corazon Aquino, launching coup attempts against her before he was given amnesty and won a Senate seat in 1995 and again in 2001.
He was on the run for almost nine months before he was nabbed in November. He was released on bail in April. (ECV/JMR/AP/Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Zamboanga. (June 23, 2007 issue)
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