Trillanes: Binay afraid to face the truth

MANILA, Philippines - A military officer scared to face the truth must return his uniform.

This was Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV’s reaction to Vice President Jejomar Binay’s backing out from their debate.

Speaking with reporters at the Senate yesterday, Trillanes said that the Vice President, a reserve colonel of the Philippine Marines, should return his uniform to the Armed Forces of the Philippines because the “Marines never back down.”

“It shows lack of character, untrustworthiness of the Vice President and the lack of any intention to face the people regarding the allegations brought up against him. He is afraid of the truth because that is the only thing I have going into the debate, and it is very difficult to dispute the truth no matter how good you are in arguing,” Trillanes said.

“He has nothing to offer the public but lies anyway,” he added.

Trillanes, who was previously an officer of the Philippine Navy with the rank of lieutenant senior grade, said that it was a disgrace for Binay to make his announcement about backing out of the debate at the Marine headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City where the Vice President celebrated yesterday his 72nd birthday.

He said that the Vice President should stop portraying himself as a fighter and do away with his “Rambotito” persona because he has shown nothing but the opposite so far.

According to Trillanes, he already experienced how the Vice President does not keep his word when he made his second attempt to overthrow former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in what has been dubbed as the Manila Peninsula hotel siege of 2007.

Trillanes recalled that when he was being tried for his participation in the Oakwood mutiny of 2003 at the Makati regional trial court, he was able to meet with Binay, then the city mayor.

He claimed that Binay planned the attempt to overthrow the Arroyo administration with him in 2007 inside the office of an RTC judge in Makati.

Binay reportedly committed to Trillanes the mobilization of employees of the Makati City Hall, urban poor residents of the city, students of the University of Makati, MAPSA personnel and even members of the Makati police.

On the eve of the scheduled uprising, Trillanes said that the guns and ammunition to be used the next day were stored in Makati City Hall.

Trillanes said that it was incumbent Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr., then a councilor, who was supposed to coordinate the movements of the people promised by the elder Binay.

The next day, Trillanes said that Binay and the people he promised never showed up and “he endangered the entire group.”

Trillanes said that the plan was to converge at the Ayala Triangle area with the hope that they would be able to secure the critical mass needed to overthrow Arroyo.

At the time, Trillanes said that he trusted Binay as a member of the opposition and as someone who projected himself as a courageous soldier.

When Trillanes was brought to Camp Crame the next day where he was detained after the hotel siege, he said that Binay arrived with some lawyers in tow and apologized to him for what he said was a miscommunication.

“He was apologetic. He said that he got the wrong information. But I cannot understand this because he gave his word, the day, the place and time but he did not show up,” Trillanes said.

“He was projecting himself as Rambotito at the time. I was also swayed by his pretentions. He should just return his uniform to the Marines because the Marines never back down,” he added.

“That is the way of Vice President Binay. He led us on and it is very hard to trust someone like that,” he said.

Trillanes said that he would not stop his crusade against the Vice President until he is sent to jail for his alleged crimes. – With Helen Flores