Angelo Reyes last statement

February 13, 2011

Reyes’ last statement: ‘I walked into corruption’

“I did not invent corruption. I walked into it. Perhaps my first fault was in having accepted aspects of it as a fact of life.”

These are perhaps among the last recorded words of former defense secretary Angelo Reyes, reportedly penned as rough “discussion notes” on Sunday, February 6, as he was preparing for an interview with Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s (PCIJ’s) Malou Mangahas —just two days before he killed himself amidst allegations that he and several other former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chiefs of staff received millions of of pesos in send-off money when they retired from service.

In these terse words, Reyes tried his best to walk the fine line between admitting guilt and insisting that he pursued an honest career as a professional soldier. “I might not be guiltless/faultless, but I am not as evil as some would like to portray,” Reyes wrote in his notes that a close confidante later passed to PCIJ’s Malou Mangahas. The full transcript, including Mangahas’ own comments, are posted on the PCIJ website. “Tinyente pa ako, ganyan na ang sistema (i.e., “conversion” system, etc.)… ,” Reyes explained in his notes. (That’s the way it’s always been, even when I was just a lieutenant.) “I can perhaps be faulted for presuming regularity in a grossly imperfect system. As CS (chief of staff), [I saw] a big landscape, presume regularity, convenient to ignore it, accept it as part of the system. It’s easy to say, institute reforms after the problems have erupted,” Reyes continued in what Mangahas explained as still rough, unpolished, and incomplete notes.

The statement sheds light on Reyes’ motives for killing himself, after it was alleged that he and several other former AFP chiefs received millions of of pesos in “pabaon” (send-off money) upon retirement from service.

In an ongoing Senate probe, former AFP fund manager Lt. Col. George Rabusa claimed that Reyes alone allegedly received P50 million on his retirement.

On the morning of February 8, Reyes killed himself in front of his mother’s grave.

He died from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, apparently from a caliber .45 pistol, based on the findings of a special investigation task group of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

Eyewitnesses told police that Reyes, his bodyguard, a driver, and two sons arrived at around 7:00 a.m. at the Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina City. Sometime before 7:30, Reyes reportedly told his sons and bodyguard to go ahead to where their car was parked. Then, standing alone in front of the grave of his mother, a single shot rang out and he fell to the ground.

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Is Sen. Antonio Trillanes a political prisoner?

February 4, 2011

Let me quote from Senate Resolution No. 84. This resolution, which was signed by 16 senators a few days ago, expressed anew “the Sense of the Senate for Sen. Antonio ‘Sonny’ Trillanes IV to be Allowed to Attend and Participate in the Sessions and Other Official Functions of the Senate and Requesting the Judiciary, Through the Regional Trial Court of Makati, Branch 148, to Rectify the Apparent Injustice by Allowing the Temporary Transfer of the Custody of Senator Trillanes to the Senate.”

The fifth paragraph of the Resolution reads: “WHEREAS, the offenses with which Senator Trillanes is charged are political offenses. Thus he is properly classified as a political prisoner in accordance with International Law.” In one of my earlier columns, I referred to Trillanes as a “prisoner of conscience,” a term similar to “political prisoner.”

We should all be familiar with the provisions of Senate Resolution No. 84. It will help us to understand and appreciate better the case of Trillanes who has now spent seven years in prison and in a few months will exceed the jail time of Ninoy Aquino. They are two senators of the Republic who have been imprisoned for their political beliefs.

Senate Resolution No. 84 points out several facts.

1. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV was elected as a senator of the Republic during the May 2007 national and local elections by the votes of 11,189,671 voters, despite the fact that he was under detention pending the resolution of the charge against him for coup d’etat before the Regional Trial Court of Makati, Branch 148, thus indicating the clear, unmistakable mandate of the electorate for him to serve as one of their elected representatives at the Senate.

2. In recognition of the mandate of the electorate, on July 25, 2007 the Senate formally adopted Senate Resolution No. 3 “Expressing the Sense of the Senate that Senator Antonio Trillanes IV be Allowed to Participate in the Sessions and Other Functions of the Senate in Accordance with the Rule of Law.”

3. The Interparliamentary Union (IPU), an international organization founded in 1889, composed of 155 of the world’s legislatures of which the Philippines is an active member, has formally adopted at least five official decisions urging the government of the Philippines to either release Senator Trillanes pending trial of his cases and/or to allow Senator Trillanes “to attend Senate sessions and to grant him any such facilities as to enable him to exercise his mandate in a meaningful way.”

4. The Philippines is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which enshrines fair trial guarantees. Likewise, as a member of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, the Philippines is bound to uphold the highest standards of human rights.

5. Senator Trillanes has been on trial and has been kept under detention for more than seven years now which period, in the light of International Jurisprudence, may well violate his fundamental rights under Articles IX and XIV of the ICCPR as pointed out by the Interparliamentary Union. (Resolution adopted unanimously by the IPU Governing Council at its 185th Session in Geneva on Oct. 21, 2009.)

6. Even President Aquino, chief executive of the Republic, in a number of instances, has expressed his personal belief that the continued incarceration of Senator Trillanes is an apparent injustice which needs to be properly addressed.

7. Former Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, who was elected as the president of the Committee on Human Rights of the Interparliamentary Union in 2009, has pointed out that in a number of countries, legally detained parliamentarians are allowed and permitted to attend parliament and participate in its work, particularly in Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Turkey, and that in countries like Pakistan and Cameroon, a mere request of the National Assembly is sufficient to enable detained legislators to attend sessions of their legislatures.

8. As can be seen from the foregoing, the continuing inability of Senator Trillanes to join the sessions and other official functions of the Senate not only amounts to a personal injustice to him but is likewise an injustice to the 11,189,671 Filipino voters who voted for him as well as to the Senate as an institution and a co-equal and coordinate branch of government.

9. This apparent injustice can be rectified and resolved by allowing the temporary transfer of the custody of Senator Trillanes from the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame to the Senate, particularly to the Office of the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms (OSAA) at least while the Senate is in session with the express understanding that OSAA shall ensure the attendance of Senator Trillanes in trial, hearings and all proceedings of the cases against him unless otherwise excused by the courts.

The 16 senators who endorsed the resolution were: Vicente C. Sotto III, Pia S. Cayetano, Franklin M. Drilon, Francis G. Escudero, Teofisto Guingona III, Loren B. Legarda, Sergio Osmeña III, Ralph G. Recto, Alan Peter S. Cayetano, Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada, Juan Ponce Enrile, Gregorio B. Honasan, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Francis Pangilinan, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Juan Miguel Zubiri. Some of them qualified their endorsement with the phrase, “with due respect to the courts.”

More than 11 million Filipinos voted for Senator Trillanes in 2007, in spite of his actions in July 2003. It is time for their voices to be heard.

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