Press Release
July 31, 2007

Loren saddened by court ruling vs. Trillanes

"I find it absolutely unfortunate that a duly-elected Senator of the Republic will not be able to discharge his mandate -- his duties and responsibilities." This was opposition Sen. Loren Legarda's immediate reaction to the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) decision denying Sen. Antonio Trillanes' motion for leave to be allowed to attend Senate sessions. Legarda said that while she respects the independence of the Judiciary, the court ruling nonetheless saddened her. "As a member of the Senate, and consistent with the constitutional mandate on the separation of powers, I fully respect the court order," Legarda said. "However, we must stress that attending (Senate) sessions forms an indispensable part of Senator Trillanes' mandate," Legarda said. "Senator Trillanes' involuntary absence from plenary deliberations will totally deprive him of the opportunity to clearly assert his views and introduce proposals that could contribute in a big way to the crafting of crucially important new legislation," Legarda said. "Thus, I still find it tragic that the mandate of over 11 million Filipinos will not be given any meaning. This mandate clearly includes seeing Senator Trillanes in the halls of the chamber, and hearing his views with respect to issues of national and public interest," Legarda added. The Makati RTC on Tuesday rejected Trillanes' motion to attend Senate sessions. The court said it was not persuaded by the reasons given by Trillanes, and denied the motion for lack of merit. The court invoked the Supreme Court ruling in People vs. (then Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo) Jalosjos, wherein the tribunal declared that: "When the voters of his district elected the accused-appellant Jalosjos to Congress, they did so with full awareness of the limitation on his freedom of action. They did so with the knowledge that he could achieve only such legislative results which he could accomplish within the confines of prison." The court ruling came five days after the Senate, by a 17-4 vote, passed a resolution in favor of enabling Trillanes to attend Senate sessions. Legarda was among those who endorsed the resolution.

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