By Benjamin Pulta/Philippine News Agency
MANILA – State lawyers on Monday informed the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC), which is hearing the rebellion case against embattled former lawmaker Antonio Trillanes IV, that the prosecution will call two former allies of the lawmaker from the military, Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Danilo Lim and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon, to take the witness stand.
The prosecution informed Judge Elmo Alameda that there “would be no need for a subpoena” to compel the two witnesses who were members of the military group which stormed the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City hostage in November 2007 after walking out of a trial.
Assistant State Prosecutor Evee Eunice De Keyser declined to elaborate on the specific points that Lim and Faeldon would be asked to testify in connection with Trillanes case which resumes trial in October.
Defense counsel Reynaldo Robles informed the court that they would object against allowing Lim and Faeldon to take the witness stand and said the two were not on the original list of witnesses submitted to the court.
However, prosecutors clarified that they can lawfully include additional testimony to shed light on the case.
Likewise during Monday’s hearings, the defense conducted a cross-examination of Assistant State Prosecutor Mary Jane Sytat who had been a prosecutor 12 years ago and present during the Manila Peninsula incident.
Sytat testified to how one of the accused, Navy Lt. Senior Grade James Layug, stood up during the trial and ordered that it be stopped and then how Trillanes and the group walked out and walked to the Manila Peninsula hotel.
The group was subsequently penalized with 10 days imprisonment for contempt of court.
Faeldon, 53, was a bemedaled captain with the Philippine Marine Corps, when on July 27, 2003, along with a group of 321 military men took control of the Oakwood serviced apartments in Makati City. He was captured and detained until the Manila Peninsula incident on November 29, 2007.
The Manila Peninsula siege involved Trillanes, Brig. Gen. Danilo D. Lim, and 25 other Magdalo officers who walked out of their trial and marched through the streets of Makati City, called for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and seized the second floor of the hotel along Ayala Avenue.
The reinstatement of charges against Trillanes came after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation 572, which declared the former Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade’s amnesty as void ab initio (from the beginning).
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