The Trillanes Blitzkrieg: Makati Pen Standoff

Sen. Trillanes, Army General Lim, et al have made their point during the six-hour stand-out at Manila Pen. The inept corrupt Arroyo regime must be dismantled and the longer bogus President Gloria Arroyo clings to power the more sufferings to the country and its citizens. Brigadier General Danilo Lim is just doing his constitutional mandate-the protector of the Filipino people and the State.


Trillanes, Lim, Guingona
taken after Pen standoff
PNP uses tear gas, armored vehicle


BY ASHZEL HACHERO AND ELLEN TORDESILLAS

SEN. Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim were arrested yesterday at the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City after a six-hour standoff following a hearing at the Makati regional trial court.

They were arrested on the basis of a warrant citing them and their followers for contempt for walking out of the hearing.

Trillanes, a former navy lieutenant who is detained at the Marines headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, was at the Makati court for a coup d’état case filed against him and 30 other officers for leading the Oakwood mutiny in July 2003.

Lim, former commander of the Army’s Scout Rangers and alleged leader of a supposed power grab attempt last year, was called to the hearing to testify on a "gentleman’s agreement" reached between government and the mutiny leaders in July 2003. Lim has been in detention at Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal since last year.

As they took positions inside the hotel, Trillanes said: "We have had enough. We are calling on the people to join us here in Makati. We are not going to tolerate this kind of torment."

After about six hours of being holed out at the hotel, Trillanes announced they were surrendering.

"We are going out for the safety of everybody. We won’t be able to live with our consciences if some of you get hit or get killed in the crossfire," Trillanes said.

The announcement came after elite police forces battered down the hotel door with an armored vehicle and fired tear gas into the lobby.

"We have been witness and victims of the kind of ruthlessness this administration is giving to the people. Like soldiers we are going to face this," Trillanes told reporters.

Trillanes faced the media together with Lim, Bishop Julio Labayen, former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, Fr. Robert Reyes, and other personalities and supporters also holed out at the hotel.

The group of Trillanes and Lim were later taken by a bus of the National Capital Police Regional Office and brought to the NCRPO headquarters in Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan. Malaya
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