Trillanes denies alleged ‘rescue’ plot

Office of Senator Antonio “Sonny” F. Trillanes IV
April 28, 2009

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV vehemently denied reports of an alleged plot to ‘rescue’ him and other detained officers following the arrest of former soldiers at a shooting range in Clark Field in Pampanga.
He called the claims by Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) executive director Mariano Villafuerte as “absurd” and “misleading.”
Villafuerte had announced that the group was nabbed while training to conduct destabilization activities and also ‘extricate’ Trillanes, Brigadier General Danilo Lim and other soldiers detained at the Camp Crame Custodial Center on rebellion charges.
“It has become a consistent tactic of this administration to use disinformation to distract people from its heinous plots against our people, such as the on-going Cha-Cha railroading and the early relief of General (Alexander) Yano as AFP Chief of Staff,” Trillanes said.
The PAOCC executive director is the son of administration solon Rep. Luis Villafuerte of Camarines Sur, known as a staunch ally of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and the major proponent of Charter Change in the House of Representatives.
Trillanes clarified that only one of the arrested retired soldiers is a member of the Magdalo and had been merely undergoing security training to secure job opportunities abroad. “To immediately conclude that I am planning to commit terrorist acts because a Magdalo member is undergoing training for overseas employment is totally absurd and can only be concocted by a very imaginative mind. That Villafuerte fellow must either be crazy or high on something,” he added.
Among those taken into custody by the PAOCC was New Zealander Anthony Newman, who purportedly recruited Steven Curtis Rossiter, a former member of the Australian special forces, according to Villafuerte.
Charged with alleged violations of the Human Security Act, the six former soldiers, four ex-Navy and two ex-Army officers, were all released over the weekend as prosecutors sought further evidence to establish probable cause.
END.


PAOCC ARREST TRIGGERED BY ROW OVER USE OF FIRING RANGE
Trillanes seeks probe of Magdalo raid yarn

By Angie M. Rosales
04/30/2009

Detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes III asked the Senate yesterday to look into the real story behind the supposed raid the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) on a supposed training ground in Clark Field, Pampanga involving supposed members of the rebel soldiers group Magdalo and two foreign mercenaries.
Trillanes filed Resolution 1038 seeking a probe of the incident amid charges that the raid was the result of an argument over the use of the firing range where the supposed training was being conducted.
The “son of a high-ranking administration official” wanted to take over the firing range resulting in the altercation and the subsequent raid.
Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, chairman of the committee on national defense and security, is poised to do the same, noting the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) statement on the incident that in effect denied the allegations made by the PAOCC, headed by Mariano Jose Villafuerte III, son of Mrs. Arroyo’s chief House ally Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte.
Last April 23, six retired enlisted military personnel
and one New Zealander, Anthony Joseph Newman, who reportedly owns the Clark Eagle Firing Range at the Clark Freeport Zone, Pampanga were apprehended by the PAOCC for alleged violation of the Human Security Act or Anti-Terror Act.
Newman, an instructor and retired security officer, despite not being charged has been reported to have been turned over to the Bureau of Immigration (BI) for deportation and is currently detained and held incommunicado at the maximum security detention center at Camp Bagong Diwa in Bicutan.
They were released the following day upon the orders of Judge Maria Angelica Quiambao, presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court of Angeles City, branch 59 “for insufficiency of evidence.”
The PAOCC alleged that the six former soldiers were being trained in relation to a destabilization plot against the administration and purportedly to spring former military officers currently detained at the Philippine National Police (PNP) Custodial Center at Camp Crame, Quezon City who included Trillanes and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim.
While the AFP steered clear from the PAOCC operation, Trillanes issued a statement denying the alleged plot to rescue him and other detained officers, calling Villafuerte’s claims as absurd and misleading.
AFP Spokesman Lt. Col Ernesto Torres Jr. was quoted in an interview saying the arrest was not in any way connected to any destabilization plot against the government, even adding that there was no indication that there is one in the offing.
He even expressed doubt that the former soldiers belonged to the Magdalo group, which is associated to Trillanes.
Before their arrest, the six former soldiers were being trained by Newman and Steven Curtis Rossiter, a former member of the Australian Special Forces, who are being employed by a very important person (VIP) private security contractor for deployment abroad, especially in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The Progressive Force Concepts Inc., a private security firm that operates the Clark Eagle Firing Range, holds its training in the firing range.
In his resolution, Trillanes said the former enlisted personnel were in fact honorably discharged from the AFP and from all appearances, are simple retired former soldiers merely looking for gainful employment to be able to support the needs of their families.
A source quoted Trillanes as saying “the nefarious ploy was actually being staged solely and exclusively for the purpose of harassing and compelling Newman or the Progressive Force Concepts Inc. to give up and or surrender the premises of the firing range in favor of the son of a high-ranking administration official.”
“This apparent illicit resort to strong-arm tactics and the misuse and abuse of state resources as well as the resort to deception of the media and the public to advance private and or personal business interests must be exposed and condemned under the strongest terms possible and must not go unpunished,” he said.
“Likewise, the act of the erring officials implicating innocent former soldiers merely trying to obtain gainful employment abroad and charge them under the Anti-Terror Act must also be strongly condemned and deplored and the appropriate remedial legislative measures must be enacted so that the same will not be repeated in the future,” Trillanes said in his resolution.
He is asking the committee on justice and human rights and other appropriate panels to look into this matter the soonest time possible.
Biazon joined Trillanes in criticizing the PAOCC as he openly sided with the AFP on this issue.
“I would tend to believe the AFP because they have facilities under their command, the facility of intelligence, the facility of long term exposure to issues like these etc. We need the Executive Department to explain why there is a difference between the statements of the PAOCTF and the AFP?,” he said.
“To me, if there is no basis to this report of such a plan then this is the height of irresponsibility of anyone who had issued that statement that there is such a plan to rescue Trillanes and Lim and possibly even the assassination of the President,” Biazon said.
“The AFP said there is no such thing… and here comes PAOCC saying there is such a thing. If there is no basis for that statement this is the height of irresponsibility on the part of that official. I think no less than all the security agencies of this country must explain this – the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Interior and Local Government, the National Security Adviser… then we will see if we need to file a resolution,” Biazon said.
The senator pointed the need to scrutinize the conflicting statements given by the PAOCC and the AFP given the seriousness of the charges, whether it is true or not.
“No less than the assassination of the Chief Executive of the land had been mentioned. This is a serious matter and we need an explanation from the Executive Department.
“I am monitoring the actions of the Executive Department on this issue considering that there are different statements being issued by the Chairman of the PAOCTF and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
“The Executive Department must sort things out and tell the public what this is, and if I am not satisfied with the explanation of people here, then I might file a resolution in the Senate to conduct an inquiry on this matter because this is a national security issue and I am the Chairman of the Committee of National Defense and Security in the Senate,” he said.