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Can a handful of uniformed judges and one robe
magistrate overrule more than 11 million voters? If the latter’s
wishes are to be followed, Navy Lt./SG Antonio Trillanes IV would be
serving the nation as senator in the Fourteenth Congress opening
July 23. But fulfilling that election mandate depends on two courts
now trying the senator-elect for his role in the Oakwood mutiny of
2003.
Though he has resigned from the
Navy to run for senator, Trillanes still faces mutiny charges in a
general court-martial of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
The Philippine Military Academy (PMA) graduate is also being tried
for coup d’état at the Regional Trial Court in Makati, where the
mutiny happened. If one or both trials convict him and impose a
prison term exceeding six years, he would lose his Senate seat and
continue in jail. Only if he is acquitted or meted a lesser
punishment could he perform his duty as a senator in full.
Another senator-elect and former
PMA mistah, Gringo Honasan, is also accused in the coup d’état
case, but only as an accomplice. Hence, the Supreme Court granted
him bail to campaign in April. No such privilege for Trillanes, who
is charged as a principal in the Oakwood incident, which he
allegedly planned along with several other middle-level officers
making up the self-styled Magdaló group.
It would be hard not to believe
that the ex-soldier played a leading role in the move of 321
soldiers to take over the Oakwood Premier service apartments in the
Makati financial district. In the early morning of July 27, 2003,
and through that Sunday before the President’s State of the Nation
address the day after, Trillanes’s were the face and the voice
that told millions of Filipinos about the Magdaló’s grievances
and demands, as the mutiny unfolded until a negotiated return to
barracks that evening.
Whether he is guilty or not, his
supporters argue that his senatorial win should be reason enough to
set aside the cases against him, so he could fulfill the mandate
conferred by 11.1 million Filipinos. Other Trillanes backers reason
that he mutinied for the worthy cause of eradicating corruption.
Hence, he should be forgiven and freed.
It is the collective wisdom of
our Constitution framers and lawmakers, however, that electoral
triumph should never extinguish criminal liability, but rather the
other way around. If convicted of a serious enough violation, an
elected official loses his post along with his freedom.
The reason is simple: if
offenders could escape penalty by winning elections, what’s to
stop them from engaging in, say, drug trafficking or extortion, then
using the illicit proceeds to bankroll a successful poll campaign
wiping their convictions and sentences away. Nor should an election
mandate give licence for an official to rape, steal and kill without
fear of punishment.
As for the supposedly sterling
causes which ignited the Magdalo mutiny, they must be weighed
against the damage done to the economy, the military, and our
democracy. The Oakwood mutiny shot down investor confidence just
when it was recovering from another uprising, the May 2001 assault
on Malacañang by supporters of former President Joseph Estrada. It
took another two years before business picked up again.
Also hurt by Magdaló was
military discipline, the indispensable foundation of any armed
force. Respect for duly constituted authority and strict compliance
with lawful orders are necessary not only for soldiers to win wars,
but more so to preserve peace. If they don’t shoot when ordered,
an army is overrun. And if they shoot despite orders not to, the
military becomes a bloodthirsty monster out of control.
For these reasons, any act
breaking the chain of command is severely punished, and even those
on trial for such offenses are denied bail. It’s worrisome enough
that Honasan and Trillanes’s election may spur others to aspire
for office via the rebellion route. But their path would entice even
more if they escape legal proceedings via the ballot box. And if
soldiers play politics, open debate dies, for who will argue with a
man toting a gun?
Senator Trillanes once espoused a
cause in armalite and grenades. Thus, he undermined the very
democracy that elected him.
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