Mutineers’ lawyers file plea for writ of habeas corpus

The leaders of the July 27 mutiny in Makati City are entitled to exercise their constitutional rights to counsel, visitation and privacy.

This was the contention of the mutiny leaders’ lawyers yesterday as they asked the Supreme court to free their clients from detention at the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) headquarters at Camp Aguinaldo.

In a 13-page petition for habeas corpus, lawyers Homobono Adaza and Roberto Rafael Pulido said the High Court should order ISAFP commander Maj. Gen. Pedro Cabuay to produce Marine Captains Gary Alejano and Nicanor Faeldon, Army Captains Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrecampo and Navy Lts. (sg) James Layug and Antonio Trillanes IV.

Adaza and Pulido said the conditions in their clients’ detention cells at the ISAFP headquarters are reminiscent of the solitary confinement cells prevalent during the martial law regime of the late President Ferdinand Marcos.

The six mutiny leaders are confined in cells without adequate lighting and ventilation, Adaza and Pulido said.

Trillanes and Gambala are set to be arraigned before the Makati City Regional Trial Court on charges of coup d’etat tomorrow at 10 a.m. before the sala of RTC Branch 61 Judge Romeo Barza at the 11th floor of the new Makati City Hall.

Lawyer Argee Guevarra, one of the lawyers for the accused, said Trillanes and Gambala must be allowed by the AFP to appear at the arraignment. "They can’t be arraigned by proxy. They must appear to personally enter a plea of guilty or not guilty," he said.

Trillanes and Gambala, Guevarra said, will enter a plea of not guilty.

Court staff said the government has shown evidence only against Trillanes and Gambala, which was why only the two of them were scheduled for arraignment.

They told Guevarra that the custodians of the accused — AFP chief of staff Gen. Narciso Abaya, Cabuay and AFP camp commander Commodore Tirso Danga — will be charged with contempt of court if they fail to produce Trillanes and Gambala.

Another lawyer for the rogue junior military officers, Reynaldo Robles, filed a motion seeking Barza’s inhibition from hearing the case.

Robles said Barza was a founding partner of the Carpio, Villaraza, Barza and Rosell Law Offices, now known as the Villaraza and Angangco law firm, "a law firm publicly known and perceived to have deep ties with the family of President Estrada."

Presidential legal counsel Avelino Cruz is a partner in the firm as well, as are Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo and Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio, both of whom are appointees of President Arroyo.

Bartolina?

Adaza said military officials are depriving their clients of access to their lawyers at any time of day or night. He added that conditions at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) are better than those under which the mutiny leaders are confined, since NBP inmates are allowed to speak with their lawyers outside their prison cells.

The soldiers’ families and relatives also cannot visit them on a regular basis, rather they must abide by the visiting hours set by Cabuay.

"Provisions for intercom installation were being made, with the intention of making family members and lawyers of the detainees talk to (their visitors) through the plywood boards (of their detention cells) without (visitors) seeing their faces or physical condition," the lawyers said in their petition to the Supreme Court.

"This constitutes cruel and unusual punishment against junior (military) officers who have not even been tried in court," they said.

The lawyers said their clients should immediately be sent back to their barracks so Cabuay can no longer violate their rights.

Since Cabuay took over as ISAFP chief on Aug. 5, in the wake of the resignation of his predecessor, Brig. Gen. Victor Corpus, the lawyers said, Cabuay imposed "whimsical, arbitrary and unreasonable restriction on the rights" of these young soldiers. These restrictions, they said, were presumably implemented upon the orders of Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes, Abaya and National Security Advised Roilo Golez, who were also named respondents to the petition of Adaza and Pulido.

The lawyers further assailed Reyes, Abaya and Golez for "inviting" their clients for questioning by intelligence officers, as well as permitting visits from military and police personnel and government officials in the absence of the detainees’ lawyers.

The lawyers also accused Cabuay of ordering his men to inspect even the private letters of the six leaders of the Magdalo group and insisted on reading and examining these private correspondences.

Two of Trillanes’ letters, they said, remain in Cabuay’s possession, adding that Cabuay has refused to send these letters addressed to National College of Public Administration secretary Dr. Joel Mangahas and Navy Rear Admiral Ruben Domingo.

These violations of the soldiers’ rights, Adaza and Pulido said, are punishable under the law.

Flag-Bearer

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has traced to the Philippine Navy the soldier who ordered the red flags emblazoned with a white sun and the Alibata symbol of the Katipunan’s Magdalo faction used by the mutineers during their siege of the Oakwood Premier condotel along Ayala Avenue in Makati.

NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco identified the soldier as Navy Ensign Arman Pontejos of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 2001. Pontejos is one of the 321 mutineers facing coup d’etat charges before the Makati City Prosecutor’s Office.

Pontejos is part of the Special Warfare Group (SWAG) of the Navy.

His name appeared on the obliterated receipt subjected to infrared radiation and examined by the NBI Questioned Documents Division (QDD) and Photo and Publication Division (PPD).

Pontejos initially put his name and contact number on the receipt of the International Flag House when he ordered 200 red flags of varying sizes worth P57,000 on June 4.

When he returned on June 11 to pick up his order, Pontejos tried to erase the information he wrote on the receipt by blackening out the data with another pen. Then he wrote the cellular phone number 0916-5151038 as his contact number, replacing the old one, 456-3222.

The landline number was traced by BayanTel Communications as belonging to the telephone service account of Michael Pontejos of Lot 13, Block 8, Quezon City Ville, Quezon City, the Navy ensign’s father.

The young rebel was also positively identified by International Flag House artist Glen Mabag, who took the young Pontejos’ order.

"We presented him with a PMA yearbook and, from there, he was able to identify Pontejos as the one who ordered the flags from him last June 4," layer Edmund Arugay of the NBI National Capital Region Division (NCRD) said.

The STAR tried to reach Michael Pontejos for comment, but he refused to be interviewed. His wife, Joey Dolores Pontejos, however, spoke with The STAR and said they visited their son in Cavite on Aug. 7.

"He informed us that he and his fellow soldiers will be transferred to a maximum (security) detention... when we left him, we have yet to know where he would be detained."

Bigger Picture

In another development, two senior- and one middle-grade Army officers were linked to a much bigger plot called "Campaign Plan Andres" hatched by the Magdalo mutineers, AFP vice chief of staff Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia said.

Garcia identified the officers as Col. Pompeyo Limbo of the Army Training School, Col. Herbert Avenante and Maj. Demy Tejares.

Tejares was to be promoted next year, but his promotion was withdrawn after he was implicated in the kidnap-slay of American student Mark Wilson Chua.

Another junior military officer, Captain Alejano of the Presidential Security Group (PSG), was also linked to the plot.

Alejano was reportedly tasked to lead the presidential convoy to an ambush laid by the Magdalo mutineers for the purpose of assassinating President Arroyo.

Besides the four Army officers now under questioning, the involvement of 116 more officers from all the branches of the AFP in the Magdalo plot was discovered in seven of 10 diskettes seized from the Magdalo group at Oakwood. These 116 soldiers remain at large.

"Of the 222 officers involved, we have only netted 108 officers at Oakwood," Garcia said. Only 290 officers and men of the over 300 suspects are in military custody, he added.

A seven-man civilian group, including Sen. Gregorio Honasan, has been listed by the Magdalo group as their advisers and members. This civilian group, Garcia said, was meant to be part of a 15-man junta which they planned to set up. — With Nikko Dizon, Cecille Suerte Felipe and Jaime Laude