MANILA – A Metro Manila lower court on Wednesday granted bail to a detained lawmaker and 17 others, including a retired military general, who are accused to taking over a five-star hotel in suburban Makati City in 2007.
In granting the bail, the Regional Trial Court of Makati City said government lawyers failed to show sufficient evidence to warrant the continued detention of Senator Antonio Trillanes 4th, retired general Danilo Lim and the 16 others allegedly involved in what is now known as the “Manila Peninsula Hotel siege.â€
The court set a bail bond equivalent to $4,000 each for the temporary liberty of the accused.
However, lawyers said that even if Trillanes could post bail, he would not be set free because he is still being detained for charges of rebellion and coup d’etat for his alleged involvement in the “Oakwood mutiny†also in Makati in 2003.
During the mutiny, Trillanes and other rebel military officers as well as their followers demanded the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo for allegedly condoning massive graft and corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
While in detention, Trillanes ran and won for senator as one of the candidates of the United Opposition in the May 2007 midterm elections.
Lawyers said that like Trillanes, the same fate awaits Lim, a decorated soldier who graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point and the former commander of the elite Scout Rangers of the Philippine Army.
The lawyers explained that Lim, who is running for senator in the May elections under the Liberal Party, is also facing separate charges of rebellion for his alleged participation in another coup attempt in 2006 against the Arroyo administration.
Lim was considered resigned from the military when he filed his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in early January.
Trillanes and Lim are detained while undergoing trial at the heavily-guarded custodial center at the headquarters of the Philippine National Police in suburban Quezon City, Metro Manila.
On November 29, 2007, Trillanes and his co-accused took advantage of the lunch break and slipped past the security of the Makati court where they were being tried in connection with the Oakwood mutiny and marched down the streets of Makati.
They were later joined by Lim until they reached the Manila Peninsula Hotel where they took over the mezzanine floor, trapping several guests, businessmen and journalists who were covering the standoff with responding policemen and soldiers.
While there, Trillanes and his group called on the Filipinos to join them in another People Power revolution to demand the ouster of President Arroyo for alleged massive graft and corruption.
However, the siege ended when security forces used an armored car to ram through the main door of the hotel with orders to shoot on sight Trillanes and the other rebel officers if they refused to surrender.
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