Woman says Trillanes owns property where weapons cache found

A woman came forward yesterday to disprove denials made by Navy Lt. (sg) Antonio Trillanes IV that he owns the compound in Novaliches, Quezon City where policemen found explosives and ammunition last week.

Trillanes and other junior military officers had led a failed mutiny by some 300 renegade soldiers last July 27.

After five months in hiding, Anastacia Santarin, 53, made her first public appearance yesterday at the office of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) in Makati City to refute statements made by Trillanes.

Trillanes said the government has been using the VACC and another advocacy group, Equal Justice for All (E-Justice), to "portray me as a heartless landgrabber" and further tarnish his reputation.

Santarin, however, said she has been a volunteer at VACC for the last few years.

Trillanes earlier denied that he claimed ownership of the compound, but Santarin, accompanied by VACC president Martin Diño, said she decided to come out of hiding and tell the "truth" that Trillanes and his associate Estrella Pabalan illegally claimed her 429-square meter parcel of land in Barangay Talipapa.

Police bomb disposal experts recently found some plastic explosives, 60 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition, pieces of blasting caps, parts of light anti-tank weapons, a list of 24 soldiers apparently designated to occupy the compound and four armbands similar to that used by the soldiers who staged the failed mutiny.

Early reports said these items belonged to Trillanes, but he said these were merely "planted" by the government to show that the mutiny was well-planned and not "spontaneous," as claimed by the mutineers.

Santarin bought the parcel of land in August 1989 for P200,000. Being an overseas worker, she was often out of the country and failed to attend to her property. When she returned to the country in 1997, she learned Pabalan had allegedly taken possession of the compound.

"They destroyed the fence I had paid for to build and they replaced it with a high concrete wall and gate. I learned from Trillanes’ caretaker Rolando Magayao that Trillanes even had a stockroom built," Santarin said.

On the evening of March 28, Santarin and her Dutch husband Adriaan de Jager were staying inside the compound when Trillanes and about nine other men confronted her.

"Trillanes said he was a business associate of Pabalan and he wanted us out of the property and that we were trespassing," Santarin said.

Unable to settle their argument, Trillanes allegedly lodged a complaint with barangay officials on March 29. Pabalan, accompanied by two policemen, went to the compound and had Santarin and her husband arrested when the couple refused to leave.

Santarin was subsequently released, but she said her husband was brought to the Bureau of Immigration (BI), where he is detained on charges of attempted homicide and disobedience to a police officer. She added that her husband claimed to have seen 50 chairs, a long table and boxes of communication equipment from the stockroom that might have belonged to Trillanes.

"I fear for my husband. Up to now, he is still kept at the BI and they could easily kill him. I have been in hiding ever since, transferring from one place to another," Santarin said.