An online post distorting facts about key events in Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s political and military career has trended with more than 10,000 reactions on Facebook.
Trillanes, a former Navy lieutenant who led two failed mutinies during the Arroyo administration, has been in the news after President Rodrigo Duterte voided the senator’s amnesty and ordered his arrest.
STATEMENT
On Sept. 6, Facebook user Rene San Gaspar, whose posts are mostly critical of Trillanes and the opposition Liberal Party, uploaded a photo showing Trillanes during the Peninsula Manila siege in 2007.
The photo bore the following claims in its caption:
“Trillanes joined (Reform the Armed Forces Movement – YOU) and started creating factions.”
“Trillanes joined the Oakwood mutiny, kidnapped an Australian ambassador and 10 other Australians.”
“Trillanes joined the PNoy admin Scarborough negotiating team, and we lost territories in West Philippines sea [sic].”
“Trillanes joined (the Liberal Party).”
Source: Rene San Gaspar’s Facebook post, Sept. 6, 2018
FACT
Court rulings, historical accounts and several news reports show the claims are either false or unsubstantiated.
First, Trillanes could not have joined the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM), a group of young soldiers that protested wrongdoing within the military under the Marcos regime.
Trillanes, born in 1971, was only 14 when the RAM, whose members include former Sen. Gregorio Honasan, “surfaced publicly” in 1985:
“The Reform the AFP Movement (RAM) surfaced publicly in March 1985 at a military academy reunion (FEER 30 January 1986). Also known as the ‘We Belong’ movement, RAM had its origins in PMA reunions in the early 1980s.”
Source: Turner, M. (1987). Regime Change in the Philippines: The Legitimation of the Aquino Government. p. 38.
In 1996, then President Fidel Ramos granted amnesty to the members and supporters of the movement:
“Amnesty is hereby granted to members and supporters of the RAM-SFP-YOU whose names are included in a list that will be mutually agreed upon between the Panels of the Government of the Republic of the Philippines and the RAM-SFP-YOU.”
Source: Official Gazette, Proclamation No. 723, s. 1996, May 7, 1996
Second, local and international news reports belie claims that Trillanes kidnapped then Australian ambassador to the Philippines Ruth Pearce and other Australians during the Magdalo group’s Oakwood mutiny of 2003.
Reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corp. and China Daily indicated Pearce and 11 other Australians who were staying at the Oakwood Premier Ayala Center when rebel soldiers seized the building were “trapped” and not kidnapped:
“Foreign Minister Alexander Downer earlier said Ms Pearce was among 11 Australians, including four Australian Federal Police officers, caught up in the siege.”
Source: ABC News Online, Rogue Filipino soldiers release Australians, July 28, 2003.
About 150 renegade soldiers — mostly junior officers below the rank of captain or enlisted men — seized the Glorietta shopping center late on Saturday, leaving Australia’s ambassador and several other foreigners trapped in adjoining residences.
Source: China Daily, Renegade soldiers hold on in Philippine capital, July 27, 2003.
Meanwhile, The Philippine Star called Pearce an “accidental captive,” adding that the ambassador denied she ever felt threatened during the incident:
The Australian embassy, for its part, announced that its ambassador is safe even after she was among those trapped when rebel soldiers seized the building early morning. Asked if she ever felt threatened, Pearce said “no.”
Source: The Philippine Star, Aussie envoy accidental captive at Oakwood, July 28, 2003.
Moreover, Supreme Court rulings narrating facts of the Oakwood mutiny made no mention of a kidnapping incident involving the Australian ambassador or other citizens.
Third, Gaspar’s claim that Trillanes’ involvement in backchannel talks with Chinese officials over disputed Scarborough Shoal cost the Philippines some territories lacks basis.
Whether sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal belongs to Philippines or China was not determined in the 2016 ruling issued by the United Nations-backed Permanent Court of Arbitration that invalidated China’s claims to the South China Sea:
“The Tribunal records that this decision is entirely without prejudice to the question of sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal.”
Source: Permanent Court of Arbitration, PCA Case No. 2013-19, July 12, 2016, p. 318.
Fourth, Trillanes, who ran independently in the vice presidential race in 2016, is a member of the Nacionalista Party and not of the Liberal Party (LP). The LP confirmed Trillanes is not their member in an email to VERA Files.
Sources:
ABC News Online, Rogue Filipino soldiers release Australians, July 28, 2003.
China Daily, Renegade soldiers hold on in Philippine capital, July 27, 2003.
CNN Philippines, Trillanes bares plan to run for vice president in 2016, June 25, 2015.
GMA News Online, Trillanes says he’s 100% sure about 2016 vice presidential bid, June 25, 2015.
Liberal Party of the Philippines, Personal Communication, Sept. 19, 2018.
Official Gazette, Proclamation No. 723, s. 1996, May 7, 1996.
Permanent Court of Arbitration, PCA Case No. 2013-19, July 12, 2016, p. 318.
Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s official website, Who is Sonny?
Supreme Court of the Philippines, Alejano v Cabuay, Aug. 25, 2005.
Supreme Court of the Philippines, Gonzales v Abaya, Aug. 10, 2006
The Philippine Star, Aussie envoy accidental captive at Oakwood, July 28, 2003.
The Philippine Star, Trillanes files 2016 candidacy for vice president, Oct. 13, 2015.
Turner, M. (1987). Regime Change in the Philippines: The Legitimation of the Aquino Government. p. 38.
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
