4:20 p.m. pnp-swat forces surrounding manila peninsula hotel, apparently waiting for orders to move in and arrest senator trillanes and brig. gen. danny lim who are holed up in a second-floor function room with other magdalo soldiers after walking out of makati’s regional trial court at 10:30 or so this morning, and asking for gloria arroyo’s resignation.
4:45 the five-star hotel has not been completely cleared of people – meron pang guests, at marami pang media reporters and photographers. including magdalo lawyer j.v. bautista who is now questioning the legitimacy of the warrants of arrest. and what’s the point daw, talaga namang nakakulong na ang mga rebelde before this action. he says they’re not moving out or giving up. he also named teofisto guingona, dodong nemenzo, and unnamed bishops as supportive but haven’t seen them inside hotel.
4:50 pinky webb nag-uulat from inside hotel. hearing shots. teargas lobbed into first floor. trillanes on cam with ces drilon. trillanes: dito sa ginagawa ng administrasyon na ito, you have to witness the ruthlessness niya, walang pakundangan. ….endangering life of media men… extra-judicial killing. … watch !
i hear that on the march to manila pen trillanes was calling on people to come and stand with them. no people, but a lot of media. these media people, i wonder, the ones who have stayed in the hotel, covering all statements by the rebels and their supporters closely, are they there because they are sympathetic to trillanes et al? sila kaya yung people who will shield the rebels, as in edsa one?
teofisto guingona on cam. hanky to his nose. we are being teargassed. i think call for sobriety a little late.
korina (monitoring situation from studio), quoting guingona: sana kumalma pati ang gobyerno.
5:00. putukan blues. … raining hard outside.
5:07. tank forcing itself into first floor entrance. backs off. abante uli. obviously trying to breakdown door. … army tank/ apc? breaks into manila peninsula.
ces drilon: lalabas na sina senator trillanes and gen. lim to avoid civilian lives being lost.
5:12 guingona, trillanes, lim walking out, but not out of hotel? only to another function room. maybe setting up for a presscon? anc’s tony velasquez and pia hontiveros speculating.
text just came in from my daughter who got it from some news channel : OA ng reaksyon ni GMA! talagang destroy the hotel?
oops i missed that.
bishop labayen (inside hotel with trillanes et al): without justice, there is no peace. justice not administered properly, so no peace in the nation.
trillanes: ako po ay tumayo dito ngayon upang gampanan aking tungkulin… tumayo para sa mga karapatan ng mga naapi. subalit nakita natin kung hanggang saan ang gagawin ng administrasyon… you have been witnesses and victims of the kind of ruthlessness of this adminstration… like soldiers we’re going to face this. … whatever they would want to do with me. … we’re going out for the sake of the safety of everybody.
you’re surrendering?
trillanes: yes, for your sake. we cannot live with our conscience if some of you will be killed in the crossfire. …
danny lim: dissent without action is consent. what we did was in consonance with our solemn constitutional mandate to be the protector of our people…. there’s unfinished business here. …
father robert reyes, appear! and bibeth orteza!
trillanes: dissent without action is consent. one of my main voter base is the afp. im convinced that most of them sympathize with our cause. and thats enough for us for now. eventually it will be their turn, to live up to their mandate as protectors of the people. 5:25 this is not a loss. if somebody lost here its the whole nation. at the end of the day gma will still be there, and you have seen in the past 7 years what that entailed.
bibeth orteza: we were doing something we believed was right. i am very proud of our media… isa akong babaeng me cancer… sana kung kailangan mo mamatay, mamatay ka para sa bayan, wag ka namang mamatay dahil sa sakit. … kaya ako nandito. … hindi matatapos hanggat may ganitong mga taong ganitong katapang. right now im very proud to be filipino… sabi nga ni salud algabre, kung minsan kailangang umatras ka para manalo…
5:35 p.m. walking out of function room, led by trillanes and lim. standing around… a tank and an apc? in the lobby.
5:45. fr. robert reyes: tinanong kung kelan nila gustong lumabas. as soon as possible po.
5:50. bishop labayen’s prayer: …this is of the people, by the people, for the people. we are gathered here for the people to be the center of our attention. but we see that the system has injected in them massive poverty. for this we stand for them and we try to fight for justice, and we know that the forces of this world hate us for this. so we ask you lord to be with us and bless us with justice that we may have peace. we thank you for the gift of life and for the gifts that are still to come, according to your promise. this we ask through christ our lord.
pinky webb: mga taga-media, inaaresto at isinasama kami sa bicutan.
6:00. ces drilon reports, they’re ready to exit and are being asked to by gas-masked soldiers, but teargas fumes still too strong. masangsang pa, maiiyak ka… may 50 pa kami dito. … bigyan kami ng gas masks para makalabas.
j.v. bautista: we’re not going to leave them. …meron daw mga order of arrest. we do not know the nature of that. only courts can issue arrest warrants.
korina: pilit kinokompiska the video of our reporters…
jv: nilalapastangan pati rights of media. overkill. police brutality. state suppression. overreaction. … lumaban po kayo. wag kayo papayag. protektado ang press freedom dito sa ating bansa. sana ang media manindigan rin.
npc’s roy mabasa: nalulungkot kami sa mga nangyayari. ginampanan lang ng media ang tungkulin nila…. walang nilabag. kinokondena namin ito…
trillanes et al have left function room and brought to a holding area. aalamin kung sinong sundalo, sinong civilian, sinong tagasuporta etc.
human rights lawyer marichu lambino phonepatch to korina: harassing of reporters by armed soldiers, hindi ko alam kung bakit tinatrato bilang kriminal. … hindi puwedeng imbitahin pero nakaumang ang mga baril. illegal arrest. wala silang karapatang magconfiscate ng video kung wala silang search warrant. paglabag yan sa batas. nakikita natin kung sinong lumalabag sa batas.
6:20. trillanes being escorted/rushed out of hotel and into waiting pnp bus. arestado. nakaposas. next, vp guingona, nakangiti, then gen. danny lim, nakaposas rin. two more men, unidentified. now fr. robert and bishop labayen making their way slowly, isinasakay rin sa bus, along with some of the technical crew of abs-cbn.
6:37 p.m. two police buses moving out.
the end, and maybe not.
[…] everyone to pictures from SunnySideUp! A website supportive of the coup attempt is online while Stuart-Santiago, Uniffors, and the Philippine Experience liveblogged the military […]
[…] everyone to pictures from SunnySideUp! A website supportive of the coup attempt is online while Stuart-Santiago, Uniffors, and the Philippine Experience liveblogged the military […]
[…] everyone to pictures from SunnySideUp! A website supportive of the coup attempt is online while Stuart-Santiago, Uniffors, and the Philippine Experience liveblogged the military […]
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”Martin Luther King Jr.
“Technically that is not an arrest(i.e.,mass arrests and handcuffing of journalists covering the Trillanes story). That is a processing,” Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno said.
“Oh Mortal Man, is there nothing you cannot be made to believe?Josef Goebbel, Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda
“Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago Friday filed an urgent resolution asking punitive action against Trillanes for leading the power grab Thursday at the Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati.”GMA NEWS
For once,I agree with Lady Miriam.Senator Trillanes is not above the law!
BUT,may I ask Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago ,How about GLORIA?
“No man (or woman) is above the law and no man is below it; nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it. Theodore Roosevelt”
How could so many scandals of an elected(?) president and her cadre remain unexplained, unchallenged, and unpunished? When? Probably never.
We’re not talking mistakes, here. We’re not talking poor judgment or failed policies. We’re not talking politics as usual, with its underhanded array of pork and perks. But we are talking about very serious violations of the public trust, and very possibly the law, perpetrated by the elected(?) leader of this nation and her handlers.
Even more amazingly, we are talking about the shameful reality that not a single one of these offenses has been investigated by a truly independent, non-political, neutral commission, armed with subpoena powers and adequate funding, and answerable ONLY to the people of Philippines. Not a single one.
What ever happened to the investigation of:
* The National Power Corp. (Napocor) -CPK-Kalayaan rehabilitation project.
* The race horse importation fiasco.
* The overpriced Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard exposé.
* Misuse of the fertilizer funds,
* The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. scandals.
* The jueteng scandals.
* the ZTE-NBN scandal(”Buck off!”).
* The Bribery of Governors and Congressmen in Malacanang.
* The MOTHER of ALL SCANDALS :THE HELLO GARCI Mega Scandal that influenced the last Presidential elections.
* The Extra-Judicial Killings of Activists as reported by the United Nations special raporteur on human rights.
* And many more…
What’s left to be said? Not very much. Gloria Pidal has had a free pass to do as she pleased since 2001.She and her political operators have not been held accountable for any crime against the people of this country. Gloria is above the law.Why?
yes yes yes, eq, you hit the nail on the head! why does that mantra, the rule of law, apply always only to whoever opposes them, but never never to themselves! it’s really sick sick sick! and the media is part of the problem. they’re the ones who’re forever giving gma and her cohorts the venue to say that no one is above the rule of law, but no one in the media ever asks them directly, confrontationally, why why why it doesn’t apply to them. which is why gma and her cohorts keep getting away with it!
We should ask ourselves just one very simple question.. If we are so sympathetic to the cause of these coup plotters… then why weren’t we there? Was it the inconvenience of going to a 5 star hotel in makati? was it the thought of geting wet in the rain? if we know that GMA keeps getting away with it, why werent we there supporting her ouster? Perhaps it is because we have given up on abstract ideas of equality and justice and have finally awakened to the real world, where it is far more convenient to condone some degree of corruption and inequality for the hope that this situation is gradually going to change.
good question, myke. why weren’t we there, why wasn’t i there, if we are so sympathetic to the cause of trillanes and co? for my part, because i was/am not prepared to protect/die for members of the military whose agenda i am not clear about. it simply is not enough to say that they want gloria ousted, or that gloria deserves to be ousted because she has placed herself above the rule of law. i need to know what kind of changes they intend to make, i need them to go beyond motherhood statements. i need to be convinced that they will not do a gma who promised the nation great changes too, only to renege on that promise once she was in power.