2 Oakwood mutineers face judgment today

MANILA, Philippines - Former first lieutenants Rex Bolo and Lawrence San Juan opted not to join the rest of the Magdalo group in seeking amnesty from the government for staging a mutiny, occupying the Oakwood building in Makati City, on July 27, 2003.

Today, almost a decade after the incident that catapulted a disgruntled Navy lieutenant to the Senate, the two will have to face their fate as a Makati court is set to hand down its verdict on the coup d’etat case filed against them.

The Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 148, in a notice obtained by The STAR from the Department of Justice (DOJ), has set its promulgation of judgment on the case at 11 a.m. today. Presiding Judge Andres Soriano, who inherited the case from retired Judge Oscar Pimentel, will issue the decision.

Both Bolo and San Juan, who have been granted bail by the previous judge and are now civilians, were called by the court to attend the hearing.

Of the 31 original accused, only the two had remained as defendants in the case after they decided not to join their fellow Magdalos, including re-electionist Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, in availing of the amnesty grant in October 2010 by President Aquino.

In March 2007, San Juan told the trial court in hearing he wanted to change his plea from “not guilty” of coup d’etat to “guilty” of conspiracy to commit coup d’etat “so as to finally serve sentence for such crime and move on with his life.”

The DOJ’s prosecution panel, which presented a total of 13 witnesses in the seven-year trial, conformed with San Juan’s manifestation, but Pimentel denied it in August 2007.

Pimentel was ready with his 26-page decision when the amnesty that effectively cleared them of political crimes was granted to Trillanes and 28 others. He then retired from the bench in 2011, passing the burden to decide on the case to his successor, Soriano.

Aquino issued Proclamation No. 75 on Nov. 24, 2010, granting amnesty to some 400 active and former personnel of the military, police force and their supporters who may have committed crimes in connection with the Oakwood mutiny, the Marines’ standoff, and the Manila Peninsula incident during the Arroyo administration.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate gave their concurrences to the amnesty less than a month later.

The 2003 uprising, in which foreign tourists and diplomats were briefly trapped as about 300 rebels seized part of Manila’s financial district, was in protest against alleged corruption in the previous administration.

Then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had pardoned some of the mutineers after they pleaded guilty in court and publicly apologized for their action.