TWO weeks after calling Senator Antonio Trillanes IV "paranoid" for claiming that suspicious-looking men were casing his residence in Antipolo City, MalacaƱang on Tuesday, October 2, said there was nothing wrong with some military men conducting a stakeout near the lawmaker's house.
At a Senate finance committee's hearing, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff General Carlito Galvez Jr. admitted before Trillanes that he had ordered some military officers to tail the embattled senator to ensure his safety.
Galvez's admission came after Trillanes bared that upon returning home on September 29, he found members of the Military Intelligence Group conducting surveillance in the vicinity.
Trillanes went home a day after he posted bail for the rebellion case that was revived against him. He had stayed for 25 days in his Senate office to avoid arrest after Proclamation 572 voided the amnesty granted to him and ordered his arrest.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said the AFP's move was "perfectly legal" as long as the privacy of Trillanes and his family was not compromised.
"'Yung casing the house (The casing of the house)? There's nothing wrong with that for as long as you do not violate the privacy of his house. Casing is perfectly legal," the Palace official said.
"It's only proper to case individuals who have been openly advocating the overthrow of a duly-elected, democratically-elected President," he added.
Trillanes first revealed on September 15 that his house was under surveillance. On September 18, Roque dismissed this as mere "paranoia."
Roque clarified that his "paranoia" remark was meant to disabuse Trillanes of the idea that the senator's life was at risk.
"He (Trillanes) felt that there was a threat to his life. We will not bother actually so that is why it's paranoia," he said.
Proclamation 572, issued by President Rodrigo Duterte on August 31, voided the amnesty granted to Trillanes, a former navy officer who participated in the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003 and the Manila Peninsula Siege in 2007. Both uprisings were staged against the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.
The proclamation ordered the Department of Justice and the AFP Court Martial to revive the coup d' etat and rebellion charges filed against Trillanes and the rest of the Magdalo dissident soldiers in relation to the uprisings.
The Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150, which handled Trillanes's rebellion case, ordered the senator's arrest on September 25. Trillanes, however, was allowed to post P200,000 bail.
On the other hand, the Makati RTC Branch 148, which heard Trillanes' coup d' etat case over the 2003 uprising, deferred on September 28 the ruling on the Justice department's plea to issue an arrest warrant against the senator. (SunStar Philippines)