By TESSA JAMANDRE
A MILITARY court will decide today on the plea—twice denied under the government of former President Gloria Arroyo—to exonerate 16 military officers facing mutiny charges for a supposed plot against her in 2006.
This is the first time that the court martial proceedings will resume under the new commander-in-chief, Benigno Aquino III.
After two postponements, the court is finally expected to rule on the defense panel’s motion for reconsideration. The hearing was originally set for Aug. 27, then moved to Sept. 3. The last hearing was on May 21.
The motion asks the court to absolve the 16 officers of the charge of mutiny, which the court denied on Oct. 27, 2009. The accused appealed the decision, but their motion for reconsideration was denied just the same last March 2.
The 16 are among 28 military officers accused of rallying the military to withdraw support from the Arroyo government in February 2006. The officers charged came from the Marine Corps and the Army Scout Rangers. Former Marine Commandant Maj. Gen. Renato Miranda, along with eight Marine officers and 19 officers from the Army Scout Rangers, had been charged with “conspiracy to attempt to create and begin a mutiny.”
In his motion, Vicente Verdadero, counsel for the accused Army officers, quoted William Winthrop, a world-acclaimed authority on military law and justice whose works have been cited in Philippine and American jurisprudence on military cases.
As a matter of evidence and as a foundation for establishing the criminal liability of the accused, the court needed to show that a mutiny actually took place, he said.
Verdadero further argued that his clients could not be held liable for mutiny but only for conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline. But neither can they be held liable for such offense because the court had already ruled that the period for filing charges on the minor offenses had lapsed .
Under military rules, the accused should be arraigned for minor charges within two years from the date the alleged crime was committed. Charges that have lapsed or prescribed include conduct unbecoming of an officer and a gentleman as well as conduct prejudicial to good order and military discipline, which are punishable by dismissal from the service. The panel of the Special General Court Martial no. 2 is then left hearing only the case of mutiny.
The motion argued that the soldiers’ behavior in February 2006—urging the AFP chief of staff and other officers and enlisted personnel to withdraw their support from Arroyo, and attempting to join the protest actions of civil society groups and the political opposition that were calling for the President’s resignation—did not constitute mutiny.
Twelve of the accused have already been acquitted, weakening the charge of mutiny in this case “where, as is usual, mutiny is a concerted act.” Citing Winthrop, Verdadero said in his pleading that “the charge is frequently joint, all or the principal of the offenders being accused together and tried together accordingly.”
Freed and now back in service are Col. Januario Caringal, Col. Armando Bañez, and Maj. Francisco Domingo Fernandez of the Marines. Also back in service are Army Lt. Col. Nestor Flordeliza (ret), Lt. Col. Edmundo Malabanjot, Capt. Ruben Guinolbay, Capt. Allan C. Aurino, Capt. Frederick Sales, Lt. Ervin Divinagracia, Lt. Jacon Cordero, Lt. Sandro Sereno and Lt. Richiemel Caballes. Cordero and Caballes were recently promoted to the rank of captain.
Miranda, who retired while in detention, is now under the custody of the Marines along with Col. Orlando de Leon, Lt. Col. Custodio Parcon, Lt. Col. Achilles Segumalian and the lone female officer, Lt. Belinda Ferrer.
Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim and Marine Col. Ariel Querubin have been placed under the custody of Brig. Gen. Reynaldo Ordonez. Nine of Lim’s Scout Ranger officers, meanwhile, are under the custody of the Army.
At the Transient Officers Quarters in Fort Bonifacio now are Maj. Jason Laureano Aquino, Maj. Jose Leomar Doctolero, Capt. James Sabadan, Capt. Montano Almodovar, Capt. Joey Fontiveros, Capt. Isagani Criste, Capt. William Upano, Capt. Dante Langkit and Lt. Homer Estolas.
“Nowhere in the prosecution evidence is it found that the accused individually withdrew their support from the President, or urged the CSAFP and other officers and men to do likewise or that anyone of them tried to join the protest actions against the President,” Verdadero said in his motion.
In the afternoon of Feb. 26, 2006, while the country was under a state of emergency, around 600 Marines in full combat gear protested the relief of Miranda, their commandant who was being linked to a destabilization plot. Thousands of civilians also defied the emergency rule and showed up in Fort Bonifacio, armed only with prayers and fighting spirit in support of the Marines. Among the supporters were the late former President Corazon Aquino accompanied by her son, now President and Commander-in- Chief Benigno Aquino III.
The Marines protested the alleged cheating in the 2004 elections that favored President Arroyo and demanded that the Mayuga report be made public to reveal the truth on the “Hello, Garci” controversy.
Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, who succeeded Gen. Generoso Senga as AFP chief of staff, is among the four generals mentioned in the tapes, purportedly from military intelligence wiretaps of what appeared to be President Arroyo talking to former elections commissioner Virgilio Garcillano about alleged plans to rig the election results. The February 2006 withdrawal of support was aborted.
Esperon, a “mistah” of Miranda in the PMA, ordered the detention of the 28 officers soon after he took over as AFP chief in July 2006. He also reversed the recommendations of a pre-trial investigation team that recommended the filing of minor charges, not mutiny, and then ordered the creation of a special court to try the officers for mutiny through an unsigned Pre-Trial Advice (PTA).
Forty enlisted personnel from the Army’s First Scout Ranger Regiment who were jailed along with these officers were dishonorably discharged on Christmas day of 2007 by Army Commanding General Alexander Yano, after being detained for more than a year. They never had a day in court.
A video disc of Lim purportedly declaring a withdrawal of support from Arroyo which the prosecution attempted to offer as evidence could not be counted because a mere recording does not prove that Lim actually withdrew support, Verdadero said. He pointed out that Lim did not air it publicly nor did he intend to.
The disc had been ordered recalled and withheld by Senga, who had been approached by Lim and Querubin about the alleged plan of junior officers to join a protest march to Edsa on February 2006.
Five months later, the disc found its way to the maiden telecast of the ABS-CBN news program Bandila. Esperon, in his testimony before the military court, denied being the source or having authorized the airing of the contents of the disc but said that it was offered to ABS-CBN on the initiative of then Col. Gaudencio Pangilinan, now a major general and head of the Northern Luzon Command.
Since the disc was aired long after the so-called withdrawal of support from Arroyo, the recording did not excite any officer or soldier, the motion stated.
In praying for exoneration for the remaining 16 officers, Verdadero said, “Their act of abandoning their plan was not resistance to obey an order but precisely to follow the order of General Senga and it showed that they had no intent to withdraw support from the President, nor violate the chain of command as they never had the intent to usurp, subvert and/or override lawful authority.”