Colleagues to Honasan: Come out, answer raps

Senate colleagues of Sen. Gregorio Honasan pleaded with him yesterday to come out of hiding and answer the coup d’etat charges the government filed against him last Monday.

"At this point, I would appeal to Senator Honasan to come out and answer the charges," Senate President Franklin Drilon said.

"The process has started and the government cannot afford to railroad this case. It is a high-profile case, the entire nation is watching and the confidence of our people in the justice system would depend on how the government would conduct itself in this case," he said.

Drilon, a former justice secretary, advised Honasan to submit his counter-affidavit to the Department of Justice.

"I think it should be best for him to file his counter-affidavit and fight it out in our judicial system. I think the process is guaranteed to have a fair result," he said.

Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr. shared the Senate head’s call for their colleague to resurface.

"It is the duty of my friend Greg to get back to work. I would suggest that he rejoin us," Magsaysay said.

He said if Honasan remains in hiding, "that makes it more difficult for himself and his colleagues who want to see justice done and due process observed."

In a teleconference with reporters on Monday, the suspected coup leader denied he has chosen to go underground, saying he just opted to be "inaccessible."

He said he would resurface once President Arroyo lifts her state of rebellion proclamation. Mrs. Arroyo has said it would be lifted sooner than expected.

Local Government Secretary Jose Lina, who filed the charges against Honasan on Monday, assured him that he won’t be arrested without a court-issued warrant.

Lina said the prosecutors would now have to evaluate the case, and if they decide to file it in court, they would await the issuance of an arrest warrant.

In a related development, opposition Sen. Teresa Aquino Oreta decried yesterday efforts by the Arroyo administration to muzzle the political opposition.

She said she is disturbed by reports in some sectors of the media linking her and a third senator to the July 27 failed coup attempt.

Oreta, who chairs the Senate committee on public information, accused the administration and its hatchet people of methodically using some media sectors for a demolition job on the opposition.

She denied having anything to do with the failed coup, saying she believes "military adventurism has no place in a democracy, let alone in a vibrant democracy such as ours."

Meanwhile, the Senate belatedly condemned the mutiny which it said severely affected the country’s political and economic stability.

Its condemnation is contained in Resolution 655 which the chamber approved on Monday night, hours after deciding to proceed with its inquiry into the unsuccessful coup attempt despite the President’s plea for it to suspend its investigation.

In the resolution, senators said the "extra constitutional" method used by young military officers in airing their grievances, whether "well-founded or not... is highly condemnable considering that they could have done it through democratic and peaceful means."

Passage of the measure was sought by Mrs. Arroyo’s Senate allies during the senators’ closed-door caucus on Monday. Although the President’s allies succeeded in having the resolution passed, they failed to stop the inquiry into the aborted coup.