AUTHOR'S Notes: Let's give credit to whom it is due. It was Antonio Trillanes, who initiated the charges of crimes against humanity against Rodrigo Duterte and his co-conspirators. His colleagues in the Senate derided him for his efforts. But without him taking the lead, Duterte would have remained free as a bird despite his crimes against the Filipino people.
CHAPTER 3
HOW IT STARTED
“Let no one pacify his conscience by the delusion that he can do no harm if he takes no part, and forms no opinion. Bad men need nothing more to compass their ends, than that good men should look on and do nothing. He is not a good man who, without a protest, allows wrong to be committed in his name, and with the means which he helps to supply, because he will not trouble himself to use his mind on the subject.” – John Stuart Mill
“Tyrants are never safe.” - Sir Martin Shee
THE
intensified war against illegal drugs did not sit well with the political
opposition. Although its ranks were decimated by mass defections of its leaders
and followers to the ruling coalition, which Rodrigo Duterte had formed upon
winning the elections, its remaining members were concerned that his war on
drugs was getting out of hand.1 Duterte’s order
to clean the nation of illegal drugs was in line with his campaign promise
to finish the drug issue in “three to six months,” PNP officials and personnel
felt they had the “license to kill” and “neutralize” suspects even without
legal basis. They went on killing sprees, murdering suspects as they pleased,
and bypassing the legal processes, which they likened to obstacles to reach
their goal of a “drug free Philippines.” Even the innocents were killed without
provocation. This caused uproar not only from the political opposition but the
human rights community, particularly the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) and several
local human rights groups. The international community was concerned with the
sudden change of atmosphere in the Philippines.2
As mass violence intensified the ballyhooed war on drugs, a member of the European Union Parliament quietly arrived in Manila in the early morning of one balmy day in September, 2016 to get a complete picture of the war on drugs. Unbeknown to the Duterte government, the European parliamentarian was part of a group of European lawmakers, whom their Parliament assigned to validate reports of mass murder in the Philippines.3 The European parliamentarian broke protocol to get in touch with the democratic opposition and other stakeholders, including the Legal Left, which was in a moral dilemma on its informal alliance with the Duterte government at that time.4 The European lawmaker had a one-on-one talk with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, who was in the last half of his second six–year term of office. The two lawmakers met in a quiet hotel and had vigorous exchanges of views that centered on reports of human rights violations under the infamous Project Double Barrel. It was not known if the European lawmaker met any other member of the democratic opposition. It could be surmised that the meeting took place because Trillanes was one of the most vocal opposition leaders against the bloody war on drugs during those days.
The dialogue was straightforward, as the two lawmakers sat for at least two hours of intense conversation. At the outset, the European parliamentarian expressed grave concern over the reported mass violence, where thousands of people allegedly involved in drug use and trafficking were murdered with impunity. Trillanes was not surprised with the European lawmaker’s concern. In his seven and a half year of incarceration as one of the leaders of the failed 2004 Oakwood mutiny, Trillanes knew from his extensive readings while in jail that Europe suffered the brunt of the two destructive world wars in the first half of the 20th century. Trillanes knew the emergence of the madman in Adolf Hitler, who almost conquered the whole of Europe. The European parliamentarian had nothing but empathy for the Filipino people, who elected Duterte as president. Trillanes said the summary executions had violated the constitutional precepts on equal protection of the law and presumption of innocence. There was no due process of law, he noted. There was no rule of law, he added.5
DECENT PROPOSAL. The European lawmaker was not content to listen to Trillanes’s narrative of the local condition from the lens of the democratic opposition. It could be presumed that he did not travel thousands of miles and spent time, resources, and efforts to listen to the gripes of the democratic opposition. He slowly but surely unveiled his purpose and adroitly navigated the intricate web of diplomatic talks. The parliamentarian, whom Trillanes did not identify because he promised him protection, gave the decent proposal that would lead him to start the immediate filing of crimes against humanity against Duterte before the International Criminal Court (ICC). Reconstructing from Trillanes’s memory, their conversation proceeded this way:6
EUROPEAN UNION PARLIAMENTARIAN: You should not feel helpless with what your president has been doing to your people. I am not bound here by diplomatic niceties, but I propose that you take immediate actions.
ANTONIO F. TRILLANES IV: I understand, Your Honor. But how shall we proceed? May I have the pleasure of hearing any suggestion?
EU PARLIAMENTARIAN: I suggest that you go to the International Criminal Court since the local justice system, as you have said, could not function anymore. Go and file charges of crimes against humanity against Duterte and his people engaged in that war against the Filipino people.
ANTONIO F. TRILLANES IV: I must confess that I am not familiar with the ICC’s operations. But this is a proposal worth exploring, Your Honor.
EU PARLIAMENTARIAN: Study the ICC and its operations. But you have to start immediately because the process takes long. The charges against Duterte may or may not prosper, Your Honor. But you have big chances that it would prosper. It is worth trying to stop Duterte from his track.
***
THE INTERNATIONAL OPTION
HIS fateful meeting with the unidentified European parliamentarian solidified his view that not much could be expected from the domestic criminal justice system and that he had to take the bull by its horns by resorting to the international criminal justice system to settle the raging issue of mass violence in Duterte’s war on drugs. He knew Duterte, although a lawyer, was pursuing an illegal drug war that had no respect for the rule of law and due process. Being a former soldier and not a lawyer, Trillanes confessed his disadvantage because he had to vet the proposal. He asked the Magdalo Party List and his legislative staff to conduct complete staff work and determine the possible filing of charges against Duterte before the ICC. The anti-drug war, the centerpiece program of the Duterte government, had to be stopped on its bloody and deadly track. There was no turning back.
In over a month of complete staff work that sapped the energy of his Magdalo colleagues and legislative staff, the results came out positive and conclusive. It was possible to file crimes against humanity against Duterte and his cohorts before the ICC. There was a basis to make him responsible for those killings. The democratic opposition could bring it before the world body. But when he consulted his colleagues in the Senate on the possibility of joining forces in the first ever complaint against Duterte before the ICC, he was disappointed with their reactions. They were reluctant to join him. They were hesitant to go against the flow, warning they did not want to get involved because Duterte, whom they already thought was a gangster and madman during those days, could and would retaliate. They were fearful of reprisals. Fear was clearly etched in their hearts.
At that time, Leila de Lima was being persecuted. They were afraid to follow de Lima’s fate. When he floated to the mass media the idea of going to the ICC and filing charges of crimes against humanity against Duterte, Trillanes did not get the support of his colleagues. Then Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, a mediocre lawmaker (a poor version of his fearless father lawmaker Aquilino Jr.), who is not known for any legislation of substantial consequence, described as “nonsense” the crimes against humanity charges against Duterte and his minions without knowing and understanding the nature of those charges. Some mocked him, believing it would not take off and, ergo, was bound to fail. Sen. Panfilio Lacson said the charges were destined to the “dustbin of history.” The puerile Sen. J. V. Ejercito dramatized the impossibility and uselessness of his planned charges by describing it as “suntok sa buwan” (punch on the moon). Even Ma. Leonora Robredo, Duterte’s vice president and admittedly a leader of the democratic opposition, did not take any effort to support him. In short, nobody wanted to join him. It was a lonely battle because he knew he would be alone to go against Duterte. But he did not lose hope. The next events seemed to conspire to push him to file the crimes against humanity against Duterte and company before the ICC.9
On September 15, 2016, or a few days after Trillanes met the European lawmaker, the European Union, through its Parliament, came out with a stinging resolution on its deep concern on the excessively high number of people killed in anti-drug operations. The European Parliament urged the Duterte government “to condemn the actions of vigilante groups and to investigate their responsibility for the killings” and conduct “an immediate, thorough, effective and impartial investigation in order to identify all those responsible, to bring them before a competent and impartial civil tribunal and to apply the penal sanctions provided for by the law.” The European Parliament’s resolution contained important information and inputs that would define the bilateral relations between the region-state and the Philippines, which was then viewed as veering toward a new episode of authoritarianism.
The European Parliament acknowledged as a “national and international concern” the illegal drug trade in the Philippines, even as it cited the official report that 20% of the barangays in the country reported drug-related crimes and that “the Philippines is considered to have the highest usage rate of methamphetamines in East Asia.” Furthermore, it cited as indication of Duterte’s state policy to murder drug suspects the part of the resolution that “President Duterte repeatedly urged law enforcement agencies and the public to kill suspected drug traffickers who did not surrender, as well as drug users.” Duterte reacted violently to the resolution. He slammed the European Parliament for what he considered an “intervention into internal affairs” of the Philippines. Henceforth, their bilateral relations have been strained.
Curiously, the EU statement came out at the time the delegations of the EU and the Philippines were discussing an agreement to enhance free trade between the two entities. Because of Duterte’s indifferent attitude toward the EU, discussions for a free trade pact between the two sides were suspended, adversely affecting entry of Philippine exports to the European market. The lack of substantial willingness to cooperate from the Philippines has led to the suspension of further discussions for a free trade pact. After five years, no free trade accord has been crafted. The withdrawal of the GSP+ preferences (Generalized System of Preference) has triggered the loss of competitiveness for Philippine exports in the European market.10
***
FAILED MUTINY
ANTONIO Fuentes Trillanes IV was among the leaders of the failed Oakwood Mutiny, where over 300 soldiers and police officers mutinied and holed in on July 27, 2003 at the lobby of the now defunct Oakwood Hotel in Makati City’s Central Business District along the fabled Ayala Avenue. The rebel soldiers surrendered and the Oakwood mutiny leaders went to prison. Trillanes, then a Navy lieutenant senior, joined the botched Oakwood mutiny to protest widespread corruption under the Gloria Macapagal Arroyo government. Trillanes was also involved in the 2007 Manila Peninsula Hotel siege, where he and the late Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim marched from the courtroom, where their cases were being held, and went to hole in at the five-star hotel in Makati City.
As spokesman of the Oakwood Mutiny, Trillanes gave face to the military rebellion. For 20 hours, the mutineers had a standoff with government forces, after which they surrendered. Trillanes and his co-mutineers were jailed. He and co-mutineers suffered seven and a half years in jail, enduring humiliation while in detention. His jailers withdrew his electric fan from his cell at the height of summer and conducted unrestrained but humiliating body searches for visiting members of his family. He described the experience as “very enriching.” It was a period of reading, group discussions largely with his co-mutineers, and deep reflection and introspection. It was comparable to taking up a doctorate degree, he said with an air of derision to his captors, particularly Arroyo, who was later imprisoned on charges of plunder during the 2010-2016 incumbency of President Benigno Aquino III.
UNTHINKABLE. While in prison, Trillanes and other mutineers did the unthinkable. From the confines of their prison cells, they launched the senatorial bid of Trillanes in the 2007 midterm election without the resources and support of established political parties and leaders. He was later adopted by the Genuine Opposition composed of the anti-Arroyo forces in the middle of the political campaign. It was largely a quixotic quest, but Trillanes and the jailed Magdalo leaders displayed youthful idealism, exuberance, and persistence to do the impossible. From being on the 53rd in the initial opinion polls, Trillanes showed strength particularly at the homestretch of the intense political campaign.
It was only in the last few days of the political campaign, they sensed they had a shot to capture a Senate seat. Trillanes, who ran as an independent without resources, won and landed 11th with votes of over 11 million. He won without resorting to public campaign. Despite his political victory, Trillanes did not go out immediately from jail. The judge handling their rebellion cases denied his petition to discharge his duties as an elected senator. On November 27, 2007, Trillanes along with detained Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim walked out of their court hearing in Makati City and holed up at the nearby posh Manila Peninsula Hotel. It was a big gamble.
The second uprising, dubbed the “Manila Peninsula Siege,” sealed his fate. It was a mistake, as the political leaders, who promised to join him and start another mass protest did not show up on the appointed time and place. Because of the failed siege, he remained in jail for the rest of Arroyo’s presidency. It was during this period of his incarceration that he realized he could not rely on traditional politicians, when it came to starting a mass protest. It was better to rely and take advantage of the democratic processes than the promises of the traditional politicians. It also during this period he learned Eric Hoffer’s classic book, “The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements,” of which its ideas have formed a huge part of the core of his democratic beliefs and values.
The political wind changed when Sen. Benigno Simeon Aquino III, a political ally, won in the 2010 presidential elections. Before end-2010, Aquino issued Presidential Proclamation 75, granting amnesty to Trillanes and co-mutineers. By December 20, 2010, he walked out of prison to assume his duties as senator. In 2013, Trillanes ran for reelection under the Liberal Party coalition. Despite a shoestring budget and the fact he had the least number of airtime among the senatorial candidates, he won to improve his position to land 9th with votes of over 14 million.
Trillanes attributed his past victories to two factors: a strong anti-corruption agenda, and the extensive use of the Samahang Magdalo network. The anti-corruption agenda was an extension of Magdalo's rebellion against the Arroyo government. In 2007, Trillanes and co- inmates relied on the informal Magdalo mass base, doing networking with supporters primarily in the AFP and PNP , using social media, mainly the now defunct Friendster (Meta or Facebook was then a nascent social networking site). Magdalo had a solid mass base to become a formal organization of volunteers. In 2009, they had formalized their mass base into the Samahang Magdalo, a socio-economic entity advocating the fight against corruption in public service. Upon their release from jail in 2010, the Magdalo mutineers did organizational work to recruit new members, conduct party building, and strengthen the organization.
The Samahang Magdalo was tested as a formal organization in 2013, when it worked for the Senate reelection of Trillanes and the election of Gary Alejano and Ashley Acedillo as Magdalo Party List representatives. “We used the same formula in 2007 and 2013. There was nothing new. The Samahang Magdalo was at the front,” Trillanes said. To test Magdalo’s political strength, Trillanes ran for vice president in 2016 but lost to Leni Robredo. He kept his seat in the Senate and finished the second half of his second six-year term.
POOR MAN. Trillanes ranked the poorest senator based on his Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN), but he has championed the anticorruption campaign, as he and the Samahang Magdalo believe that corruption is deeply embedded in government and endemic in the Filipino psyche and culture. This explains why he went all out against the top of the political totem pole, battling Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, corrupt military generals, Juan Ponce Enrile, and Jejomar Binay. Trillanes explained that it was no coincidence that he has been going after the top political honchos, as they had committed alleged acts of corruption. This is Samahang Magdalo’s advocacy; it constitutes the main reason the young military officers staged their mutiny in 2003.
Trillanes single handedly raised corruption issues against the Binays. Despite discouragement from fainthearted fellow senators Sergio Osmena III and Francis Escudero, who saw failure in his anti-corruption campaign, Trillanes filed the original resolution seeking a Senate probe “in aid of legislation,” citing the overpriced Makati parking building as the initial target of probe. His resolution and the subsequent official probe conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee had snowballed into what could be perceived as an irreversible political and public relations nightmare for the then Vice President and his son, then Makati City Mayor Jejomar Jr., as they were forced to assume a defensive mode.
Although he languished in prison for the first half of his first six-year term, Trillanes, when he went out of jail, transformed himself into a conscientious and productive senator, who led in the enactment into law of several bills of national importance and gained a solid reputation for his strong stance against irregularities in government. What he fought in the two mutinies, he brought on the Senate hall, earning the enmity of several colleagues, who did not agree with him. In the Senate, the bullheaded Trillanes was one of the most reliable lawmakers in enacted bills especially for the workers, public servants particularly teachers, and the men and women in uniform (AFP and PNP). In advocacy works, Trillanes has established a reputation of a maverick for his stubborn and fierce resistance for every major issue raised on the Senate floor.
There were no holy cows for Trillanes. Uncompromising, irreverent, and independent-minded, Trillanes, as a senator, did not hide his feelings and said them publicly regardless of who got hurt. He did not hesitate to show his disdain for colleagues, whom he perceived to be corrupt and compromised and, ergo, did not gain his respect. He worked with everybody but agreed with nobody when his principles were at stake. In his two terms in the Senate, Trillanes was not involved in any scandal. He was a picture of integrity and moral rectitude. He is known to be an upright man, who would not hesitate to speak against corruption.
Antonio F. Trillanes IV was born on August 6, 1971 in Caloocan City to Antonio Trillanes, a retired navy captain, and Estelita Fuentes, a homemaker. He is married to Arlene Orejana, a soldier and PMA graduate too. They have three children: Francis Seth, Thea Estelle, and Alan Andrew (deceased). After two years of college education at De La Salle University, he went to the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the country’s premier military school, and earned a diploma cum laude on BS Naval Engineering System in 1995. Upon graduation, Trillanes joined the Philippine Navy. His unit arrested smugglers, poachers, illegal loggers, human smugglers and traffickers, and illegal fishermen in Philippine waters, enabling him to garner medals and citations for his accomplishments.
***
ANTI-DUTERTE OPPOSITION
WHEN Rodrigo Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016, Trillanes took an opposition stance, refusing to join the majority, although it was the most fashionable and convenient to do at that time. Instead, he chose to stay with the democratic opposition, which was heavily decimated by defections of its leaders. He decided to raise issues after issues against Duterte and his political flunkeys and junkies. Trillanes was among the first to call Duterte a “mass murderer,” an unpalatable tag which stuck deeply although Duterte did not like it. Right after the elections, Trillanes sustained the issues he raised against Duterte in the political campaign. Among these issues were Duterte had billions of pesos in bank deposits in a local universal bank. He challenged him to declassify records of those bank deposits by signing a bank waiver so that they would be opened publicly. Duterte, afraid of the consequences, refused vehemently, claiming he had no reason to sign any bank waiver.
Duterte, who was described a narcissist, was hurt by Trillanes’s revelations and series of challenges. Duterte could not run away from his tirades, even as Trillanes kept on relentlessly provoking him to respond. In what seemed a fit of madness, Duterte went public to reveal that Trillanes, essentially a poor man compared to his richer colleagues, had “secret bank accounts” that ran to several “millions of dollars” in foreign banks. Duterte raised the ante by claiming that Trillanes “received “as bribery an unspecified amount of money from dubious sources.
Trillanes, counterpunched by bringing several journalists to the head office of a major bank in Singapore, which Duterte named the alleged depository bank of his non-existent accounts. In front of the quizzical journalists, bank authorities denied the existence of those bank accounts and the money deposits alleged by Duterte to have been owned by Trillanes. Embarrassed by Trillanes’s counterblow, Duterte could not say anything but swallowed his pride. It was a shining moment for Trillanes for he had emerged a prudent man after learning his lessons from the failed 2003 Oakwood Mutiny and 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege. Later, a humiliated Duterte went public to say that he made up those revelations, effectively making a fool of himself. Duterte admitted in public that what he revealed about Trillanes were fake news and ergo, false. He said that he did it to embarrass and get even with Trillanes.
NO DILIGENCE STUDY. In an eyeball to eyeball situation with Trillanes, Duterte blinked first. Trillanes was the big time winner in his tussle with the short-fused but limited Duterte, who bought and bit hook, line, and sinker, the false information fed him by an unrepentant bit player, who claimed to have done an alleged diligence study on Trillanes. It was no diligence study but manufactured information based on fake documents. Those baseless allegations, which Duterte raised before the bar of public opinion, could not be proven because Trillanes was so poor that he could not provide his family a house of their own. His modest house was given to his family by his parents-in-law, who have come to embrace Trillanes as their own son.
This is not all. Antonio F. Trillanes IV had come to perceive that Duterte’s war on drugs is a phony war, or basically a war against the poor and the downtrodden. There was more to what met the eye in his fake war. For him, it was intended to get rid of the competition, as Duterte was the drug lord himself. Trillanes has reached the view that the Duterte family was involved in the drug trade, believing the alleged drug lords killed in the anti-drug operations were competitors with whom he did not want to share with them the lucrative illegal domestic drug market.
Hence, Trillanes did what could be regarded as an almost impossibility – initiating the filing of crimes against humanity charges against Duterte and his ilk at the ICC. This was not only unprecedented by all standards but most daring as well. Bringing the incumbent president before the world court defies the Filipino mind, enabling Trillanes to capture the people’s imagination. He is not just a former rebel soldier turned politician, but a leader of statesman character. Trillanes has established the reputation that he could be a good ally, but a dangerous enemy as well because he does his homework. He is always a step or two ahead of his opponents.
Duterte’s response to Trillanes’s rise as his credible enemy was feeble and ridiculous. He threw his last dice by ordering his slow-witted flunkey from Davao City, then Solicitor General Jose Calida, to pursue new ways to put Trillanes back in jail. Calida had created a reputation not because of his mastery of the law, but because he had connections in the legal community and, ergo, he could fix cases. Like a magician who pulled a rabbit out from his hat, Calida came out with the August 31, 2018 Presidential Proclamation 572 signed by Duterte, voiding the presidential pardon issued by President Benigno Aquino III to Trillanes on the basis of “missing application forms.“ From Calida’s convoluted mind, following the logic of Duterte’s proclamation of withdrawal of the presidential pardon, Trillanes should go back to jail. It was that simple if we follow his logic.
Calida’s machinations were so laughable, although they could be compared to the discomfort like an aching impacted tooth. Duterte, fresh from his seven-day state visit to Jordan and Israel, appeared surprised and frustrated when he learned that Calida and the law enforcers failed to arrest Trillanes and put him back in jail. Speaking in the Sept. 8, 2018 arrival press briefing at the Davao City International Airport, Duterte could only say that he only signed the presidential proclamation because it was suggested by Calida. It was his way to extricate himself of any responsibility and complicity to what had happened to Trillanes.
For his part, Trillanes holed himself in at his Senate office. He did not go out until the threats of his rearrest had subsided. Two judges from two separate judges handled Trillanes’s rebellion trials. Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 ruled to reopen the rebellion trial on the basis of the flawed presidential proclamation. Makati RTC Branch 148 Judge Andres Soriano, in a separate coup d’etat case, refused to reopen any trial, saying Trillanes’ evidence was sufficient to prove he was validly given amnesty. Soriano ruled in that case he could not reopen a case that had long been closed by the amnesty grant. Alameda later allowed Trillanes to post bail for his temporary liberty. The matter was closed when the Court of Appeals ruled on March 2, 2021 that Alameda erred when he decided to reopen the case. 11
CALIDA’S MACHINATIONS. Duterte and his cohorts, including Calida, were so humiliated by their failure to put Trillanes back in jail. They might not know it but many people and parties quietly helped the lawmaker to escape arrest. They included then Senate President Tito Sotto III, who adamantly refused to allow the PNP team to arrest him in the Senate premises. Then Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said to the effect that Calida manipulated the loss of Trillanes’s amnesty paper at the Department of Defense. In short, Calida could have bypassed Lorenzana, a big no-no among co-equals. Certain people from the Office of the Solicitor General were said to have leaked information on Calida’s moves, enabling Trillanes to prepare and counter his initiatives. From a mutineer, Trillanes has carved a different identity to become an apostle of democracy.
This is not the end of the story. Throwing his own dice, Trillanes delivered his October 3, 2018 privilege speech, alleging that Calida's security agency has acquired government contracts since 2016. In his privilege speech “in aid of legislation,” Trillanes revealed that at least 16 government contracts were “cornered” by Vigilant Investigative and Security Agency Inc., a security firm owned by Calida and his family, since becoming solicitor general in 2016. The contracts had a total amount of P358.3 million. He presented documents to bolster his claim of graft against Calida.
Trillanes accused Calida of violating the rules against conflict of interest, as the Office of the Solicitor General reviews contracts entered into by the government. While Calida claimed to have resigned as president in 2016, he did not divest from Vigilant Security to remain a registered stockholder. Calida claimed he did not violate the law.
His privilege speech virtually brought Calida down on his knees, as the latter never engaged in any move to shackle Trillanes. The soldier turned lawmaker declared that he would keep the documents to indicate he reserves the right to file them before the appropriate state agencies, most likely the Office of the Ombudsman, after the June 30, 2022 end of Duterte’s tenure. In brief, Calida is a marked man.
***
THE GUTS OF SONNY TRILLANES
THEY hate his guts. They dislike his irreverence. But Sonny Trillanes has earned his spurs. He is not a chatterbox, who talks first before he thinks. On the contrary, he thinks first before he talks.
Sonny knows his colleagues in the Senate like the palm of his hand.
Even from a distance, he could distinguish the fake from the genuine, the competent from the lazy, the intelligent from the dumb and frivolous, and the corrupt from the upright.
Sonny knows how to show respect and admiration for colleagues of substance and integrity. He does it openly. But he would not hesitate to show his disdain for colleagues who pretend to be patriots when the truth is they are just rotten lowlifes, or human above, but fish below.
When the late Joker Arroyo criticized the expenses his office had incurred while he was in prison for the first three years of his first term, Trillanes did not cower in fear, but retaliated, saying Joker should be ashamed for lawyering for the corrupt GMA in the Senate.
When Jojo Binay challenged him to a debate re the former's alleged plunder, Sonny, in an eyeball to eyeball situation, did not blink and accepted the challenge although he is not a lawyer unlike Jojo. It was Jojo who blinked first when he chickened out and cancelled his proposed public debate.
Even Juan Ponce Enrile, as Senate president, did not escape Sonny's tirades, when the former assailed him for his back channeling efforts re China issue. Sonny did not hesitate to speak on Johnny's villainous role in history. In the end, it was Sonny who advocated his release from detention for humanitarian ground, i.e. Johhny is too old for it.
Sonny did not like Migs Zubiri's posturing as an apostle of clean government and good governance, when the truth was Migs cheated to gain a Senate seat. Migs was so incensed to the point of challenging Sonny to an arnis bout and bragging that he was an arnis champion. His challenge was so laughable to the point that Sonny merely ignored him and Migs could not do anything.
The pretentious ways of Manny Pacquiao and Alan Cayetano, now the DFA secretary, did not escape Sonny's attention. Sonny knows their asslicking ways and he did not hesitate to criticize them publicly, thus earning their ire.
Today, Sonny openly criticized Dick Gordon's autocratic ways, telling straight to his face how he had barricaded himself in Subic Free Port just to keep his post as SBMA chair.
Hence, Sonny could exercise his bragging rights as a soldier, who rebelled against corruption in government and suffered, along with his fellow soldiers, seven and a half years of imprisonment. Hence, courage is the hallmark of his character.
That he never runs away from a fight is his greatest virtue. Sonny Trillanes is a genuine warrior.
***
INTREPID GARY
GARY Alejano Jr., one of the 300 soldiers who staged the failed 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, to force Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to resign as president, was a member of the House of Representatives for two terms (2013-2019), representing the Magdalo Party List Group. A graduate of the Batch 1995 of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the country’s premier military school, Alejano joined the Philippine Marines Corps, rising to become a captain. As a lawmaker, Alejano gained prominence for his opposition against Duterte. Alejano and Trillanes were batchmates at PMA.
Alejano opposed the Duterte 's “pivot” to China, particularly his “soft” enforcement of the 2016 victory of the Philippines in the landmark case it lodged against China before the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) five-man Permanent Arbitration Commission. The arbitral decision dismissed China’s ridiculous claim of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including the West Philippine Sea. At one point, Alejano exposed Duterte’s prohibition on the Philippine Navy and Philippine Coast Guard to patrol the coastal seas at the time China was building its military bases on islets in the West Philippine Sea. Alejano advocated the creation of the proposed Department of Maritime Oceanic Affairs to set a clear maritime security framework to defend and protect Philippine territory.
As a fearless lawmaker, Alejano voted against TRAIN Law or the oppressive tax reform laws of the Duterte government, the proposed lowering of the minimum age of criminal responsibility, and the reimposition of death penalty. Although he is fluent in English, Cebuano and Hiligaynon dialects, Alejano gained prominence for his flawless Tagalog. He was one of the few lawmakers, who can make public discourses in Filipino, which is expanded Tagalog.
Alejano was born on January 22, 1973 in Sipalay City, Negros Occidental to GaryAlejano, Sr., a farmer, and his mother, a teacher whom he fondly called “Mamang Lica.” He is married to Minerva Cojuangco of Bamban, Tarlac. He has five children: Martine Gwyneth and Micah Gabrielle, Maxine Gail, Gary Alejano Jr., and Gian Marcus.
Gary went to the University of Cebu (formerly Cebu Central Colleges), taking up electrical engineering for two years from 1989 to 1991. He continued his studies at the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) where he finished Bachelor of Science in Naval System Engineering in 1995. He pursued graduate studies at the University of the Philippines completing Masters of Management and a certificate in New Enterprise Planning. In 2016, along with other students from 23 countries, he attended the program for Senior Executives in National and International Security of the Harvard Kennedy School.
Alejano was a bemedalled soldier. As a member of the Philippine Marine Corps, he saw action in the fight against the terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group in Mindanao, including Sulu and Basilan. In 2000, he was part of the campaign to capture Camp Abubakar and was assigned to secure areas in Matanog, Maguindanao. At this time, he was “wounded in action” and for his bravery, he received the Distinguished Conduct Star and other awards.
Unbeknown to many Filipinos, Alejano is a man of integrity as he refused to surrender his principles to the blandishments of power. He did not succumb to temptations to surrender to the forces of evil, which tried to entice him to leave his group and join the ruling coalition. He has stuck his fortunes out with the Magdalo group. His wife Minerva said how she and Alejano’s relatives were subjected to abuses by his jailers at the time he was incarcerated with his co-mutineers. It was very difficult when he was in jail, she said.
As a lawmaker, Alejano filed bills and resolutions, although few became laws mainly because he belonged to the opposition. He initiated over a hundred infrastructure projects such as roads, school buildings, water services, and flood control projects. He was named as one of the “TOP Congressmen of the Philippines” by the Publishers Association of the Philippines (PAPI). Together with Trillanes, his batchmate at PMA, he went to The Hague in the Netherlands to submit supplemental documents in support of the human rights complaint against Duterte and his ilk, a case filed earlier by Magdalo, through Jude Josue Sabio, at the ICC. In 2018, he initiated an impeachment complaint against seven associate justices of the Supreme Court.
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ICC’S TURN
A MONTH after the fateful meeting between Trillanes and the unnamed European lawmaker, it was the turn of the ICC, through Fatou Bensouda, then chief of its Office of the Prosecutor, to speak. Bensouda said:
“My Office is aware of worrying reported extrajudicial killings of alleged drug dealers and users in the Philippines, which may have led to over 3,000 deaths in the past three months. I am deeply concerned about these alleged killings and the fact that public statements of high officials of the Republic of the Philippines seem to condone such killings and further seem to encourage State forces and civilians alike to continue targeting these individuals with lethal force.”
Those EJKs fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC if they are committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack, Bensouda said. She added: “Extrajudicial killings may fall against a civilian population pursuant to a State policy to commit such an attack.”
Moreover, Bensouda reminded Duterte that the Philippines was a member of the ICC and that “the Court has jurisdiction over genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes committed on the territory or by nationals of the Philippines since 1 November 2011, the date when the Statute entered into force in the Philippines.” She ended her statement with a dire warning: “Let me be clear: any person in the Philippines who incites or engages in acts of mass violence including by ordering, requesting, encouraging or contributing, in any other manner, to the commission of crimes within the jurisdiction of the ICC is potentially liable to prosecution before the Court.”12
By all means, Bensouda’s statement had far-reaching implications to indicate a changing world. Gone were the days when a leader could do what he liked in the most despotic and brutal ways. The current world order has come out with ways to check leaders, who have criminal tendencies to oppress their citizens. This is now part of the much heralded international criminal justice system, which the world order in the first half of the 20th century did not have to culminate in two successive world wars in a span of twenty years. She flashed the proverbial signal to the democratic opposition in the Philippines to consider the ICC in its fight against Duterte’s war on drugs.
INTRODUCTION. Fatou Bensouda, the feisty and fiery woman from the African state of The Gambia, has cast a long shadow on crimes against humanity charges against Duterte and others at the ICC. As its Chief Prosecutor, Bensouda approved in 2018 the move to conduct a preliminary investigation on Duterte and his subalterns. On June 14, 2021, or a day before she retired and completed her nine-year term at the ICC, Bensouda recommended to the three-man ICC Pre-Trial Chamber the move to conduct official investigation on Duterte and others.13
On September 27, 2021, the ICC, through the Pre-Trial Chamber, has formally authorized the official probe into alleged crimes against humanity in then President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. The Court stated that there was reasonable basis to proceed with the probe noting that “specific legal element of the crime against humanity of murder” has been met in the crackdown that left thousands dead.
According to its ICC website, Fatou Bensouda of The Gambia was elected on December 12, 2011 by consensus as Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court by the Assembly of States Parties. Ms. Bensouda was sworn in on 15 June 2012. Bensouda previously held the position of ICC Deputy Prosecutor (Prosecutions), having been elected with an overwhelming majority by the Assembly of States Parties on August 4, 2004 and serving this post until May 2012.
Prior to her work at the ICC, Bensouda worked as Legal Adviser and Trial Attorney at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) in Arusha, Tanzania, rising to the position of Senior Legal Advisor and Head of The Legal Advisory Unit. Before joining the ICTR, she was general manager of a leading commercial bank in Gambia. Between 1987 and 2000, she was successively Senior State Counsel, Principal State Counsel, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Solicitor General and Legal Secretary of the Republic, and Attorney General and Minister of Justice, in which capacity she served as Chief Legal Advisor to the President and Cabinet of The Republic of The Gambia.
Bensouda also took part in negotiations on the treaty of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Parliament and the ECOWAS Tribunal. She has served as delegate to United Nations conferences on crime prevention, the Organization of African Unity's Ministerial Meetings on Human Rights, and as delegate of The Gambia to the meetings of the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court. Bensouda holds a master’s degree in International Maritime Law and Law of the Sea and as such is the first international maritime law expert of The Gambia.
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EMERGENCE OF DDS ‘HITMAN’
ABOUT this time too, Edgar Matobato, a self-confessed hit man of the so-called “Davao Death Squad” (DDS) hovered on the radar and came out openly to reveal the operations of the DDS, which stands for the Duterte’s Death Squad, or Duterte’s killing machine. His public appearance did not come out easily. It was a complex process that was triggered by his realization in 2013 that his DDS involvement was wrong before the eyes of his God and society. It was a complete but unexpected turnaround for this functionally illiterate murderer. The moment he realized his murderous ways, he neither went back to his old ways nor entered into any compromise with the Duterte’s camp. It was a complete breakaway. Several characters came out to participate in the spine-tingling process.
Seeing clear signals from the European Parliament and the ICC, which incidentally came out with separate public statements to oppose the EJKs under Duterte government, Trillanes hastened to prepare the crimes against humanity charges against Duterte. The Magdalo Party List Group intended to file the charges immediately before the ICC. But a snag struck him and his legal advisers and staff. They have to present and prove that local remedies had run out; Duterte’s machinations had reached to a point he could do anything that pleased him and kill people with impunity. They had to show to the world they could do nothing within the available domestic legal means to stop Duterte. This is what the Rome Statute provides with ultimate clarity. This is the principle of complementarity.
They brainstormed the issue and agreed with a solution: impeachment of Duterte in Congress. This is a win-win solution. If the impeachment complaint prospered, it could lead to Duterte’s impeachment by the House of Representatives and eventually a trial to remove him from office by the Senate. If it lost, it would prove that the available legal system was not working to provide justice. Because impeachment was a political process, it did not win and lost on the opening salvo. It did not reach the first base, making clear that filing crime against humanity charges against Duterte and his cohorts before the ICC was the final solution. Gary Alejano Jr. was supposed to be the captain ball of this move to file impeachment charges against Duterte.
By the third week of October, 2016, Trillanes started to prepare the crimes against humanity charges, which Magdalo would bring to the ICC against Duterte and his ilk. They needed a lawyer, who would represent them before a court of law and file the information before the ICC. Sensing the futility of going to his reluctant colleagues, Trillanes consulted with the leaders of the democratic forces, which had stayed at the periphery of Duterte’s authoritarian government to voice out their advocacy for democracy and adherence to clean governance. He consulted the Church and civil society leaders, including liberation theologians, many of whom he came to know in the pro-democratic mass actions. Trillanes approached lawyers, who had established a good reputation in representing for free the poor, the oppressed, and the downtrodden. But because of the intricacies of the issue and their unfamiliarity, Trillanes did not immediately get a positive response. This is something easy to understand. Filing crime against humanity charges against Duterte before the ICC would be the first in the country’s history. This was an area where even angels fear to tread.
OBSCURE LAWYER. By November, 2016, Trillanes met Fr. Alberto Alejo, a Jesuit priest, who suggested getting an obscure lawyer from Mindanao to represent Matobato, who upon public appearances, went into the care of the Magdalo. Matobato, who reached only Grade 1, needed a lawyer to advise him of his rights. This time, Matobato made public what he knew about Duterte and the DDS in his previous two appearances in the Senate inquiry on EJKs. Trillanes could use the lawyer not only to represent Matobato but file the crime against humanity charges as well, mainly to save on cost. Alejo proposed Jude Josue Sabio, a trial lawyer based in Cagayan de Oro City. Alejo knew Sabio not personally but only from his posts in social media. They have developed online friendship; the Jesuit priest proved pivotal to facilitate his meeting with Trillanes. Meeting Sabio sometime in November, 2016, Trillanes was impressed by Sabio’s uncompromising stance on EJKs. Sabio did not only oppose EJKs along lines of principles based on philosophy and law, but exuded the courage to bring Duterte before a court of law.
Born in 1964 in the idyllic town of Libona in Bukidnon province, Jude Josue Sabio grew up in the quiet town of Tagaloan in the province of Misamis Oriental. He completed his AB Political Science at Ateneo de Manila University. He finished his law degree at the University of the Philippines, where he was an honor student and a member of the reputable Alpha Phi Beta Fraternity. He earned his law degree in 1993, took the Bar examinations the following year, and passed it without hassles. Sabio had a fairly encouraging law practice in Cagayan de Oro City but a marital spat led to his bitter and acrimonious separation from his wife.
Life took a downward spin for Sabio. He momentarily lost verve for life, wandered aimlessly, turned wayward, and became unproductive for a while. It was said he literally slept on street sidewalks. He recovered and picked up the pieces though. Sabio had a knack for writing and he wrote well. He wrote opinion pieces for Mindanao Gold Star, a daily newspaper in Cagayan de Oro City. Many of his opinion pieces were reposted and that was how he was noticed by Alejo, who, after reading his hard-hitting posts, took the initiative to befriend him. Soon, he flew to Manila to assume a new role – as counsel for Matobato.
LIBERATION THEOLOGIAN. For his part, Fr. Alberto Alejo could have led a sedentary lifestyle as a Catholic priest, belonging to the Jesuit order. But this was not something meant to be. Because of Duterte’s frequent attacks on the Church and its clergy and the murders and attempts of murdering priests, including the ones, who went publicly to oppose the EJKs, Fr. Albert Alejo, who is known to friends and critics as “Paring Bert,” one of the country’s more than 6,000 members of the clergy, took the cudgels to defend human rights and oppose Duterte’s authoritarian inclination.
Alejo is one of the many Filipino priests, who have been heavily influenced by the teachings of Second Vatican Council, the pivotal gathering of the Roman Catholic clergy worldwide to update the Church on its teachings and doctrines and redefine its role in the postwar era characterized by the emerging secular or pluralistic world. The Second Vatican Council, or “Vatican Two,” has redefined the Church’s role as the “church of the poor,” as indicated by its adoption of the phrase “preferential option for the poor,” which rejects the prewar views that the Roman Catholic Church was the church of the elite, powerful, and influential. There were assertions that it was sort of atonement for – or rectification of - the Church’s “soft stand” on Adolf Hitler’s dictatorship that led to the Second World War, or even the massacre of six million Jews.
Alejo is an activist priest, who has taken a liberationist outlook on the widespread poverty and social injustice that characterizes the Philippines and many Third World countries. Alejo refuses to acquiesce to the powers-that-be. He is among the liberationist theologians, who have assumed and taken activist, albeit critical, views and role in Duterte’s emergence, particularly his war on drugs. He did not take the spate of EJKs sitting down. He opted to stand and speak, earning the enmity of Duterte and his malleable but unthinking minions. This is not without his personal fears and anxieties. Three priests were murdered in broad daylight under Duterte’s incumbency. Alejo takes their murder seriously in his works as an activist priest. He takes a firm stand against EJKs, believing they are violations of human dignity.
Born on August 25, 1958 in the southern Cagayan de Oro City, Alberto Alejo took biochemistry in college, but shifted to philosophy as he sought answers to many questions that afflicted him in his youth. He finished AB Philosophy at the University of Santo Tomas in 1979. But discovering his priestly vocation, he has joined the Jesuit order, which has many Filipino intellectuals, or the cream of the crop, as key members. Like most Jesuits, Alejo completed his masters’ degrees in philosophy in Ateneo de University in 1988, theology at the same Jesuit-run school in 1991, and social anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at University of London in 1994. He earned his doctorate in social anthropology at the University of London in 1999. Hence, Alejo is not only a political activist, but an anthropologist and poet as well.
Over the years, Alejo has developed a reputation for his involvement and advocacy in the issues of corruption, human rights, social inequity, and indigenous people's rights. In 2003, Alejo led Ehem!, a nationwide Jesuit anti-corruption campaign. Along with other activists, Alejo co-founded the Citizens-Customs Action Network (CITIZCAN), a Bureau of Customs third-party monitoring initiative; served as director of the Archdiocese of Manila Labor Center; he is contributor and editor of Asia Mindanao; the Mindanao Law Journal; and Agham Mindanaw.
As a political activist, Alejo has articulated what he has termed “surplus of violence,” or “surplus of cruelty,” which the country experienced under the Duterte government. He called for dialogues among the various forces in the political spectrum. In 2020, Paring Bert Alejo was arrested and charged with sedition, along with eight others, for an alleged plot to oust Rodrigo Duterte. They had posted bail. Alejo is now writing his book on his experiences of accompanying whistleblowers, witnesses and truth tellers since the middle of the 1980s.
These include comrades of slain activist Edgar Jopson, an unnamed NPA commander with a P3 million bounty on his head, an unidentified young Badjao woman, who was a witness to the Abu Sayaf murder of a missionary priest in Tawi-tawi, a low profile bookkeeper whistleblower to the corruption of a big NGO fighting human trafficking, a faceless Commission on Audit guy, who exposed anomalies in the AFP top echelon, a quiet tribal chief and Babaylan falsely accused by Duterte of massacre of an Ilonggo family in Davao City, plus the more recent ones, when Duterte became president, among others. It would take time, he said, but he was determined to complete it in due time.14
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FIRST SALVO
ON March 16, 2017, or nine months after Duterte was sworn into office, then Representative Gary Alejano Jr. of the Magdalo Party List Group, fired the opening salvo against Duterte by submitting an impeachment complaint at the House of Representatives. Alejano accused Duterte of culpably violating the Constitution, engaging in bribery, betraying public trust, committing graft and corruption, and other high crimes. The 1987 Constitution sets specific grounds for impeachment – treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes or betrayal of public trust.15
The impeachment complaint included Duterte’s involvement in the creation of the Davao Death Squad when he was mayor; his war on drugs since he became president, which has led to the summary killing of thousands of Filipinos; and his supposed unexplained wealth in the form of bank deposits and undeclared properties, among others. Overall, it has three main themes and charges. First, it accused Duterte of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of Constitution, and other high crimes for his war on drugs which, according to the complaint, the President used to “induce” police officers into killing alleged drug dealers and users without regard for the law, and making this as basis for their promotion in the police service.
Second, it accused Duterte of betrayal of public trust, bribery, graft and corruption, and culpable violation of the Constitution for allegedly creating the DDS, when he was mayor of Davao, citing the testimonies of self-confessed DDS members, retired policeman Arturo Lascañas and civilian Edgar Matobato. Third, it accused Duterte of graft and corruption and other high crimes for his alleged unexplained wealth, as revealed previously by Trillanes, and his hiring of contractual employees as mayor.
According to the Constitution, the House has the exclusive power to initiate the impeachment process. Section 2 of the Constitution says: “The President, the Vice President, the members of the Supreme Court, the members of the constitutional commission, and the Ombudsman may be removed from office, on impeachment for and conviction of, culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft, and corruption, other higher crimes or betrayal of public trust.” If a third of the House membership affirms the impeachment complaint, it goes to the Senate, which will convene immediately as an impeachment court to try the impeached official. Alejano’s complaint did not reach the first base, as the House of Representatives committee on justice then chaired by the late Rep. Reynaldo Umali, dismissed the complaint on May 14, or nearly two months after it was filed, for “lack of merit.”
The impeachment complaint was bound to fail because Duterte’s coalition had an overwhelming majority in Congress, which made Duterte a demigod of sort for opportunistic politicians. The shortsighted lawmakers failed to perceive that the impeachment complaint was filed to prove before the world community that the major institutions in the Philippines had failed and were not functioning in consonance with the provisions of the 1987 Constitution. On that basis, Duterte should be punished for his crimes against the Filipino people and his wanton disrespect of human lives. It strengthened the crimes against humanity charges, which the Magdalo Party List and Trillanes’s legislative staff built up and developed and filed by the obscure lawyer in Jude Josue Sabio before the ICC.
FOOTNOTES
1. This is a peculiarity of the multiparty system in the Philippines. The political party of the winning presidential candidate becomes the center of political gravity as those politicians from other parties transfer en masse to the winning political party. Congress has not enacted any law to check this pernicious practice.
2. Even Duterte enticed the police force to get involved in the mass violence, declaring he would protect them from prosecution. This issue would be thoroughly discussed in the succeeding chapters.
3. The presence of left-wing elements in the early part of Duterte governments gave the impression of unofficial alliance between the Duterte government and the Legal Left. The presence of the likes of Rafael Mariano, Judy Taguiwalo, Liza Maza, Terry Ridon in his government was among the indicators.
4. Trillanes cited the following constitutional provisions as basis of his claim that Duterte was violating the 1987 Philippine Constitution: “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor shall any person be denied the equal protection of the laws.Article 3 (Bill of Rights), Section 1 of 1987 Constitution: “(1) No person shall be held to answer for a criminal offense without due process of law;” and Article 3 (Bill of Rights), Section 14 of 1987 Constitution: “(2) In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be presumed innocent until the contrary is proved, and shall enjoy the right to be heard by himself and counsel, to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to have a speedy, impartial, and public trial, to meet the witnesses face to face, and to have compulsory process to secure the attendance of witnesses and the production of evidence in his behalf. However, after arraignment, trial may proceed notwithstanding the absence of the accused provided that he has been duly notified and his failure to appear is unjustifiable.”
5. This portion was part of my two-hour interview with Sen. Trillanes on Dec. 14, 2021 in a coffee shop in Pasig City.
6. Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the crimes against humanity charges would not prosper. Trillanes could only bite his tongue in disgust over Lacson’s disdainful attitude. Lacson did not meet mocking comments from Trillanes, when he ran away from the scene for more than a year and hid elsewhere when Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and husband Miguel filed charges against him.
7. For the complete text of the EU resolution, read: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2016-0349_EN.html
8. When Bensouda issued the statement, Duterte did not face any charges. For the complete text, read: https://www.icc-cpi.int/pages/item.aspx?name=161013-otp-stat-php
15. https://www.rappler.com/nation/164327-first-impeachment-complaint-filed-against-duterte/
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