ANTONIO Trillanes III was the subject of our column more than 10 years ago or on Dec. 10, 2007, titled “Trillanes believes in non-violence”. We commended him for deciding to join mainstream politics and ran as senator in the 2007 elections.
He won in the elections and it was unprecedented because he was in jail and was not even allowed to go out of his cell to campaign.
After winning, he was so excited to serve as senator of our republic but, lo and behold, the power of only “one vote” from a Makati regional trial court (RTC) judge thwarted the wishes of 11,138,067 voters who catapulted him to the Senate.
Again, when Congress opened in July that year, the Senate on a 17-4 vote passed a resolution asking the court that Senator Trillanes be allowed to attend Senate sessions and perform his legislative duties as senator of the republic but to no avail.
Just one man, the Makati RTC judge who was trying the coup d’état case against Trillanes and his former fellow soldiers further decreed that the neophyte senator was also prevented from setting up an office in his place of detention. Members of his Senate staff were not allowed to go in and out of his cell in Fort Bonifacio.
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel pointed out at that time the case of Muslim rebel chieftain Nur Misuari who was accused of rebellion and probably a greater offense than that of Trillanes, yet the court granted his request to be placed under house arrest and later also his petition to be allowed to go to Sulu and campaign as candidate for governor in the elections. Senator Pimentel said, too, that the court also permitted Misuari to go to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to represent the Moro National Liberation Front in a conference on the peace process sponsored by the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
Well, all that happened is now water under the bridge because Trillanes later applied for amnesty in January 2011 and it was granted by then President Benigno Aquino III as concurred in by Congress.
Trillanes was elected senator for a second term and is serving again until 2019. You will note that in the 2016 elections he ran for vice president but lost.
Trillanes is a survivor and has higher political ambitions. If the Department of Justice succeeds in jailing him again by voiding his amnesty even if it was validly granted him in 2011, our favorite barber makes his fearless forecast that Trillanes will become our next President!
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Historical Quote of the Week
“The first most bemedalled Filipino girl swimmer – Nancy Deano of Dingle, Iloilo.” (For comments or re-actions, please e-mail to jnoveracompany@yahoo.com)/PN
