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By Anthony Vargas, Reporter
TWENTY-FOUR of the 28 Army and Marine officers
who were implicated in the February 2006 foiled coup attempt still
remained “missing” for a court-martial trial in Camp Aguinaldo
that was to arraign them for mutiny charges.
This prompted defense lawyers to press the
General Court-Martial panel to order the Armed Forces of the
Philippines to produce their clients before proceeding with the
arraignment.
Lawyer Vicente Verdadero who represents Brig.
Gen. Danilo Lim yelled at the court asking why some of the accused
officers were not present during Thursday’s proceedings.
“Why are they not here? It is really absurd…
who is making a joke here? Are they massacred on their way [to Camp
Aguinaldo]?” Verdadero said, yelling at the panel.
The 24 led by former Marine Commandant Maj. Gen.
Renato Miranda, and Col. Ariel Querubin were brought down from Camp
Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal to Camp Aguinaldo early Wednesday evening.
Their transfer was ordered to speed up the proceedings.
However, during Thursday’s proceedings, only
Lim and Marine Colonels Armand Bañez and Januario Caringal, and
Army Capt. Dante Langkit were physically present.
A wife of one of the accused officers during the
proceedings told defense lawyers that they checked for their
husband’s presence at the Camp Aguinaldo detention center and were
told they were attending a hearing.
Defense lawyers went ballistic with the
information provided by the woman and asked the court to suspend the
proceedings until the others have been located.
However, the law member of the panel, Col.
Marian Aleido, said the issue will be addressed after the
arraignment of the accused officers.
The lawyers howled in protest over Aleido’s
reply, with lawyer Homobono Adaza saying that the safety of the 24
officers supercedes any proceedings of the court.
Adaza, who is representing Querubin, a Medal of
Valor awardee, said what he sees is the railroading of the
proceedings against the defendants.
“The charge is conspiracy, which means the act
of one is the act of all. Each one of them should be present and yet
only four of them are here,” Adaza said to the court.
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