SEN. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim were arrested yesterday at the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City after a six-hour standoff following a hearing at the Makati regional trial court.
They were arrested on the basis of a warrant citing them and their followers for contempt for walking out of the hearing.
Trillanes, a former navy lieutenant who is detained at the Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, was at the Makati court for a coup d’état case filed against him and 30 other officers for leading the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003.
Lim, former commander of the Army’s Scout Rangers and alleged leader of a supposed power grab attempt last year, was called to the hearing to testify on a "gentleman’s agreement" reached between government and the mutiny leaders in July 2003. Lim has been in detention at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal since last year.
As they took positions inside the hotel, Trillanes said: "We have had enough. We are calling on the people to join us here in Makati. We are not going to tolerate this kind of torment."
After about six hours of being holed out at the hotel, Trillanes announced they were surrendering.
"We are going out for the safety of everybody. We won’t be able to live with our consciences if some of you get hit or get killed in the crossfire," Trillanes said.
The announcement came after elite police forces battered down the hotel door with an armored vehicle and fired tear gas into the lobby.
"We have been witness and victims of the kind of ruthlessness this administration is giving to the people. Like soldiers we are going to face this," Trillanes told reporters.
Trillanes faced the media together with Lim, Bishop Julio Labayen, former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Fr. Robert Reyes, and other personalities and supporters also holed out at the hotel.
The group of Trillanes and Lim were later taken by a bus of the National Capital Police Regional Office and brought to the NCRPO headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan.
At least 15 members of the media were hauled on a second bus to the NCRPO.
PNP chief Avelino Razon said this was because they have received reports that some Magdalo members were pretending to be media members during the standoff.
Arroyo said she was informed that some members of the media were included in the "custodial investigation" at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, which she said is "part of the ordinary police operations."
About an hour after the standoff ended, the PNP announced it was imposing a curfew in Metro Manila, from midnight to 5 a.m.
Razon said the curfew was meant to maintain peace and order while the PNP is conducting follow-up operations in search for unaccounted personalities behind the Makati incident.
Exempted from the curfew are those under emergency and working on a graveyard shift.
AFP, PNP ON FULL ALERT
The PNP and the Armed Forces went on full alert after the walkout.
Military policemen did not stop Trillanes, Lim and the other Magdalo soldiers from walking out of the court at the 14th floor of the Makati city hall complex.
Among those who joined the walkout were mutiny leaders Lt. (s.g.) James Layug, Captains Gary Alejano and Nicanor Faeldon.
Twenty-nine of the accused in the Oakwood mutiny were present in the hearing.
From the city hall complex, Trillanes’ group marched on JP Rizal street joined by former Vice President Teofisto Guingona and former UP president Francisco Nemenzo who were also present in the court proceedings.
Military escorts followed the soldiers to the Manila Peninsula, where other supporters were waiting. Along J.P. Rizal, armed soldiers showed up with red armbands.
The group tried to enter through the side entrance of the Manila Peninsula but was blocked by hotel guards. A shot was heard, shattering the glass door. No one was hurt.
QUESTIONABLE MANDATE
The marchers finally entered and proceeded to the Conservatory at the hotel’s second floor where Lim read a three-page statement.
He said: "Today, we address all loving and decent Filipinos to announce that now is the time to end the sufferings and miseries inflicted upon us by the illegitimate Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government and start a new life and a new Philippines. The die is cast."
He said Arroyo had occupied the presidency under a "questionable mandate."
"She stole the presidency from President Joseph Ejercito Estrada through unconstitutional and deceitful means and later manipulated the results of the 2004 elections to perpetuate herself in power.
"We have individually and collectively tried all means to resolve this legitimacy issue through the normal electoral, judicial and congressional processes but Mrs. Arroyo uses naked power through the issuance of AO 464 and other executive proclamations, and the sheer weight of number to paralyze the impeachment process, to frustrate us at every turn.
"After all these had failed, our people tried to air their grievances in peaceful street assemblies... but they were stopped and dispersed with water cannons from firemen and truncheons from the police," he said.
WALKOUT
The walkout at the Makati court, which is hearing the coup d’état case of Trillanes and other officers involved in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, happened at around 10:30 a.m.
Lim, former commander of the Army’s First Scout Ranger Regiment, testified as witness for the Magdalo soldiers regarding a gentleman’s agreement forged by government negotiators with the mutiny leaders, including Trillanes who was then a Navy lieutenant.
Lim said under the agreement, only five leaders of the Oakwood mutiny, which involved a number of Scout Rangers, would be charged and the rest would be admonished.
After a five-minute recess, the court reconvened. The prosecution was interrogating Lim when Layug stood up, approached the witness stand, grabbed Lim and pulled the general out of the courtroom. Trillanes, the other Magdalo officers who are facing trial, their guards, and civilian supporters followed them out of Judge Oscar Pimentel’s sala.
Four guards were assigned to each of the Magdalo officers.
Traffic stood still along Makati avenue where some workers expressed support for the group.
At the Manila Peninsula, the group established a command post at the second floor of the hotel.
Guingona positioned himself at the third floor along with other civilian supporters including Bishops Labayen and Gaudencio Tobias, Fr. Robert Reyes, former Sanlakas Rep. JV Bautista, and lawyer Argee Guevarra.
Reyes was saying mass at the Ninoy Aquino monument at Ayala ave. and Paseo de Roxas for the birthday anniversary of the late Sen. Benigno Aquino.
SURRENDER DEADLINE
Trillanes’ group was earlier given by Director Geary Barias, NCRPO chief, until 3 p.m. to surrender or they would be arrested.
As the deadline passed without anyone being arrested, an armored personnel carrier rammed the front doors of the hotel, fired tear gas canisters, and for a time parked in the trashed lobby of the luxury hotel.
Another four armored vehicles had parked in the driveway.
Outside the Manila Peninsula, Navy personnel bearing truncheons and shields blocked about 500 protesters belonging to the Bukluran Ng Manggagawang Pilipino and Kilusan Para sa Pambansang Demokrasya, and about 50 supporters of Trillanes.
The protesters converged at the Ninoy Aquino statue but were stopped before they could reach Makati ave.
At around 3:45 p.m. Chief Supt. Leo Santiago of the PNP Special Action Force ordered his men to wear gas masks and stand in formation at the Ayala avenue side of the hotel.
Barias announced the start of the assault at 4 p.m.
Three warning shots were fired coming from the Cojuangco PLDT bldg. where government forces were stationed.
TRAPPED
Journalists trying to do live phone-ins spluttered and covered their faces with handkerchiefs as the tear gas rose from the lobby to higher floors.
Scores of journalists and hotel staff had been trapped in the hotel, along with a number of guests initially.
Trillanes’ group, which had earlier stopped people from leaving the hotel lobby as the deadline passed, later relented and allowed them to go out.
Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao, PNP spokesman, said the assault was "very cautious and a calculated maneuver."
He said that upon entry of the assault team, "persuasive shots were fired to instill fear among them."
Pagdilao also said Razon ordered the assault order after shots were fired from the side of the rebel soldiers.
Hundreds of fully armed troops were called to Camp Aguinaldo after the military declared a red alert. A tank blocked a lane outside Camp Aguinaldo.
AFP chief Gen. Hermogenes Esperon vowed the military would be applying the full force of the law against the group of Lim and Trillanes.
SOLVED BUT…
Lt. Col. Bartolome Bacarro, AFP spokesman, said the military remains loyal to the President.
Asked why Lim and his group were not forcibly taken to their detention cell before they could leave the Makati court, Bacarro said: "We don’t want violence to erupt and that’s what we’re preventing."
Esperon said the Makati crisis was resolved as expected even as he announced that more troops are being poured into Metro Manila.
"This matter is solved but is not closed. We can say that our troops on the ground accomplished their mission. As we said earlier, this will be resolved today, we believe that at this time, it’s already resolved...What prevailed is the rule of law," he said.
Esperon also said there was no need for him to issue warnings to soldiers who might defect to the group of Lim.
The military’s Central Command said there is nothing to be alarmed with in the Visayas.
Maj. Gen. Victor Ibrado, CenCom chief, said the military force in Visayas remain loyal to government.
CenCom supervises two Army infantry divisions and Air Force and Navy units in the Visayas.
The US Embassy advised its citizens to stay away from Makati.
Britain did not issue a statement saying this was an "internal matter for Philippine authorities to handle." – With Regina Bengco, Jocelyn Montemayor, Raymond Africa, Victor Reyes, Anthony Ian Cruz, Gilbert Bayoran and Reuters
