Honasan still won’t surface

Opposition Sen. Gregorio Honasan, who is facing coup d’etat charges, still won’t surface despite President Arroyo’s decision yesterday to lift the state of rebellion.

"I think he is not showing up any time soon. He will continue to be inaccessible," Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III told reporters yesterday after receiving a call on his cellular phone from Honasan.

Earlier, Honasan had promised to surface once Mrs. Arroyo lifted her proclamation of a state of rebellion.

Sotto said Honasan was aware of the President’s move.

Senate President Franklin Drilon asked Honasan to come out in the open as he has no more reason to be "inaccessible" following the lifting by the President of the state of rebellion.

Drilon said Mrs. Arroyo’s move "should put to rest the raging public debate about alleged threats to civil liberties and the liberties of individuals, such as the fear that the state of rebellion can be used to effect warrantless arrests, which we have maintained should not be the case."

"With this lifting of the state of rebellion, Senator Honasan should now consider surfacing and submitting his counter-affidavit before the Department of Justice (DOJ)," Drilon said.

Sotto said Honasan complained to him about the difficulty his lawyers are encountering in obtaining from the DOJ pertinent documents that he needs in answering the coup d’etat charges which Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina has filed against him.

He said the documents include the complaint against him and voluminous supporting papers.

"He told me that the documents are being released piecemeal, taking his lawyers time to obtain them. It is possible that he won’t be able to obtain all the papers he needs before the 10-day deadline," he added.

DOJ prosecutors have given Honasan 10 days from Friday last week to present his side or they would file a case in court against him on the basis of Lina’s complaint and evidence.

Sotto said the DOJ is apparently setting his accused colleague up for conviction.

"They are making it difficult for him to answer the charges and make the deadline. After the deadline expires, they will file a one-sided case," he said.

Sotto said upon Honasan’s request, he asked Senate President Franklin Drilon to suggest to the DOJ to expedite the release of the needed documents.

"He is asking that he be treated fairly," he added.

Drilon said he is reiterating his call to Honasan to submit himself to the judicial process.

"No, I will not call him. I think Senator Honasan wold keep himself abreast of the political developments and therefore through the media, I would make an appeal to Senator Honasan. I would not be surprised if he would call me and I am making already public what I will tell him," he said.

Drilon said he could not say if Honasan will come out anytime this week.

In a related development, Honasan’s lead lawyer Danilo Gutierrez asked the DOJ yesterday to conduct a preliminary joint investigation against his client, former starlet Laarni Enriquez and their co-accused in the coup d’ etat charges filed against them by Lina.

In a telephone interview, Gutierrez assailed the DOJ for allegedly "playing games" with them in connection with the charges against Honasan. He added that the issuance of a subpoena against Honasan at his office last Friday was part of the "legal shortcuts" by the DOJ.

"Our position, last week, that we will not answer the subpoena, stands because it seems that the DOJ is playing games with us. They are treating my client (Honasan) as a hoodlum or a criminal in issuing a subpoena with missing attachments that are necessary for my client to answer the charges intelligently," he said.

Gutierrez said the presence of 1,000 John and Jane Does in the complaint sheet was another strategy of the DOJ to make Honasan "feel the heat."