Malacañang dares Gringo to surface

Malacañang dared Sen. Gregorio "Gringo" Honasan yesterday to come out and face the criminal charges filed against him in court.

"(President Arroyo) has given the assurance that due process will always prevail," said Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye.

"So I don’t think there is really any reason for Senator Honasan to continue hiding."

Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño said yesterday the government considers as "served" the subpoena delivered to Honasan’s Senate office last Friday, although his staff had refused to received it.

"If (Honasan) refuses to receive the subpoena, it will just be indicated at the subpoena "refused" or "refusal," the note will indicate the addressee refused to accept the subpoena and that is submitted for resolution," he said over radio station dwIZ yesterday.

"If (Honasan) refuses to accept the subpoena, the case is submitted for resolution and the basis would be the complaint filed by the (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group)."

However, Zuño said that does not mean that Honasan would be immediately arrested.

"If submitted for resolution, if we find there is enough evidence to charge Senator Honasan, this will be filed to the court," he said.

"And it is up to the court which will issue the arrest order."

Zuño said the server reported to him that nobody at Honasan’s office wanted to receive the subpoena.

"This is the procedure in serving summons." he said.

"It does not need to be served to him personally. It can be served at his office or at his home. So I instructed the server to just leave behind the folder containing the documents, which were the basis of the (rebellion) charges against the senator."

The serving of the subpoena means Honasan had been given a chance to file a counter-affidavit, he added.

Senate President Franklin Drilon has asked Zuño to furnish Honasan with a complete set of documentary evidence and attachments pertaining to the coup d’etat charges he is facing in court.

"Senator Honasan communicated with Sen. (Vicente) Sotto (III) yesterday and the message sent to me was that if I can ask the Department of Justice to give him a complete file of the reasonable request and I have called the chief state prosecutor and asked him to furnish Senator Honasan a complete set of the documents so that Senator Honasan can respond to the charges," he said.

Danilo Gutierrez, Honasan’s counsel, said he was leaving to Honasan the decision whether to surface or not, now that the "state of rebellion" had been lifted by President Arroyo.

"From my end, I see no problem for Senator Honasan to come out in the open," he said. — Marichu Villanueva, Jose Rodel Clapano