Miriam doubts legality of teleconferencing plan

SEN. Miriam Defensor Santiago has assailed a Senate plan to allow detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV to join the chamber’s plenary deliberations and hearings via teleconferencing. She called it a violation of the Constitution.

Santiago, who filed an ethics case against Trillanes for disorderly behavior after leading two failed coup attempts against the administration, said the detained senator was seeking a privilege that not even presidents and queens have dared to demand.

The proposal "will deny due process to the state, represented by state prosecutors who have charged Trillanes with two counts of coup d’etat: one for the Oakwood incident, and the other for the Peninsula incident," said Santiago, referring to the two uprisings, one in 2003, the other in 2007, which Trillanes joined.

According to Santiago, Trillanes is naturally absent from the Senate plenary activities because he remains under "compulsory detention."

"If there is any move to allow Trillanes’ electronic participation, the principle of fair play dictates that there should be notice and hearing to the state prosecutors concerned," she said.

Santiago’s criticisms proved to be so strong that the Senate rules committee failed on Monday to obtain a consensus on the proposal.

Rules committee chair and majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said another hearing would be held to find a consensus.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that at least 14 senators have already signed a resolution giving Trillanes the opportunity to join the Senate via teleconference.

The new Senate majority which ousted Senate President Manuel Villar is pushing for teleconferencing rights for Trillanes, which would cost the chamber some P10 million.

Santiago did not mince words in her tirade against the pro-Trillanes proposal.

"By means of his two nationally-televised coup attempts, he has demonstrated his contempt for the existing governmental system and for the rule of law. If he had succeeded, he would have been hailed as a hero. But he failed, and is now a suspected criminal," she stressed.

"In effect, he is a political offender, who is defined as a criminal driven by ideology. It appears that the Trillanes ideology is to destroy the present government. Thus, he is now barred from seeking the privileges of the very same government he sought to destroy," she said.

Sen. Richard Gordon said Trillanes could have succeeded in toppling the Arroyo government in his two attempts, which could have led to the dissolution of the Congress, including the Senate.

"If he succeeded, there will be no Congress and now he wants to participate?" Gordon said.

Santiago even challenged Trillanes to refuse any privileges from the Senate "if he wishes to be a hero."

Santiago said she may be able to convince Sens. Lito Lapid, Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr., Gordon and Zubiri to oppose the proposal.

Sen. Joker Arroyo has said that what the new Senate majority wants to do is unprecedented in legislative history. – Dennis Gadil