By TESSA JAMANDRE
THE Oakwood mutiny, the Marines standoff and the Manila Peninsula siege have left a mark not only in history but also in the hearts of three young girls.
Thea Trillanes, Faye Querubin and Aika Lim have had to endure the prolonged absence of their fathers—former Navy captain and now senator Antonio Trillanes IV, Marine Col. Ariel Querubin and Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim—who remain in jail and are standing trial for mutiny. But they are proud of their fathers and believe that what they did was right.
Recently, the three girls, 11, 15 and 18 years old, visited the places where their fathers left a footprint in history.
A daughter’s pride
It was shortly before noon one Saturday when Thea Trillanes visited Ascott Makati—formerly Oakwood Premier—for the first time. She was only four when her father and more than 300 junior officers and enlisted men took over the posh hotel at the Ayala Center, Makati City, on July 27, 2003.
“Ang ganda dito (This place is beautiful),” Thea mused.
Now 11, she recalled her father’s reason for leading the uprising: “Paalisin daw po si Gloria sa pagka-President, kasi masama si Gloria (Make Gloria Arroyo step down because she is a bad president).”
The soldiers, who eventually became known as the Magdalo group, had denounced graft and corruption in the military, among other ills in government.
The last seven years of her father’s detention have convinced Thea that President Gloria Arroyo is indeed a bad person. “Bad things are happening to the country,” she said as she wished aloud for a “peaceful country.”
Majority of the mutineers have been released from detention, but not Trillanes, who won a seat in the Senate in 2007.
Thea is proud of her father’s feat. After all, she said, not all fathers can do that: Win a public office while in jail.
A daughter’s prayer
In February 2006, in the thick of the “Hello, Garci” controversy, a group of soldiers was reportedly planning to join a street protest to call on President Arroyo to resign for her role in the cheating in the 2004 elections. The President declared a state of emergency, citing as reason an alleged destabilization plot. A number of officers were confined to quarters until the commandant of the Marines was unceremoniously sacked. That triggered a standoff at the Marine headquarters in Fort Bonifacio on Feb. 26.
The bemedalled Col. Ariel Querubin stood out in that six-hour standoff. After three years, his daughter, Faye, sat on the very spot at the Marine headquarters’ grounds in Fort Bonifacio where her father was interviewed by journalists during that highly charged episode in history.
Now 15 years old, Faye said that she had no idea then that when they went to church that day, it would be last time they would do so as a family. For three years now, the Querubins have been hearing Mass in jail.
“Even though I was too young to realize it then, I knew that what he was doing was good,” Faye said. “It was the right thing to do. He stood up for what he believed in, and he stood right by them, even though people persecuted him for what he did.”
She described her dad as “a good father in soldier’s uniform.” The colonel is one of the only two living Medal of Valor awardees in the Marines, the highest military award given by the Armed Forces of the Philippines for gallantry in action and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On that fateful day in February 2006, her father also stood up beyond the call of duty, Faye said.
“Why should a man be imprisoned because of what he did that was right?” she asked. “My dad is righteous and he has good values, and I think that in time, God will set him free.”
A daughter’s principles
Eighteen-year-old Aika, only daughter of Brig.Gen. Danilo Lim, was sick and on her way to a hospital when her father marched to the Manila Peninsula Hotel on Nov. 29, 2007 calling for change and for people to rally behind a new government.
At the time, Lim, already in detention for the February 2006 alleged mutiny, had just testified before a Makati City court that was trying Trillanes for leading a coup d’etat. He and Trillanes walked out of court and proceeded to the luxury hotel.
“He didn’t have to explain. We already knew what he was there for and we already understood,” Aika said of her father’s action that day.
Lim and Trillanes were holed up in one of the hotel rooms for about eight hours until government forces stormed the hotel, forcing their way into the lobby in an armored personnel carrier.
Aika recently walked down the stairs where a Special Action Force team of the Philippine National Police took her father away. Looking back at what happened, she said that she is proud of what her father went there for that day.
“He symbolizes dissent against corruption, dissent against injustice, dissent against lies and he stood up against (them), and that’s what I’m proudest of,” Aika said.
She added, “They may have my father inside bars, but what I know is this country has never been better after they imprisoned the truth with him.”
It was during the siege that the general said this now famous quote: “Dissent without action is consent.”
Said Aika, “Manila Pen will always be the message of dissent, and my father is just a voice and gave a face to the many others who were not as brave as him.”