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By Jomar Canlas, Reporter
The government on Friday withdrew
the charges of coup d’état it filed against Senator-elect
Gregorio Honasan, citing lack of probable cause.
Justice Secretary Raul M.
Gonzalez signed a resolution affirming the recommendation of
Prosecutor Irwin Maraya to drop the case against Honasan.
Honasan had petitioned the
Department of Justice to review the charges after government
prosecutors refiled the case before the Makati Regional Court.
The justice department accused
Honasan of being one of the leaders in the Oakwood mutiny in July
2003.
Gonzalez said that “….taking
all testimonies together you can draw a conclusion that the motive
was to encourage the people to overthrow the government. But there
was a second conclusion [which indicated that] this was a part of
his [Honasan’s] platform.”
Gonzalez said there is not enough
evidence to warrant the filing of charges against Honasan.
But Gonzalez made it clear that
Honasan’s case is very different from that of another
senator-elect, Antonio Trillanes IV, who was present during the
Oakwood mutiny.
“Honasan just created a
scenario of how to achieve his moral recovery program, while
Trillanes was physically present [during the mutiny],” he said.
Gonzalez’s ruling in effect
reversed the finding of DOJ prosecutors led by Chief State
Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño that Honasan could be indicted.
Gonzalez denied the dropping of
charges was the result of an agreement Honasan made with Malacañang.
Right now the most serious charge
that could be leveled against Honasan is inciting to sedition, he
said.
Honasan, who was arrested last
year, was freed on bail weeks before the May elections where he ran
as an independent senatorial candidate.
Last April the DOJ panel of
prosecutors affirmed the filing of coup charges against him.
The prosecutors said that based
on testimony by some of the junior officers who took part in the
mutiny, Honasan was the “mastermind and ringleader.”
But Gonzalez said there was no
evidence that the lawmaker was involved in the alleged lectures and
blood compacts that led to the Oakwood siege.
 --With
Jefferson Antiporda and
ABS-CBN Interactive
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