Press Release
November 29, 2007

Transcript of Interview with Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" S. Aquino III on Trillanes at the Manila Pen

Pia (Arcangel of GMA7): Do you support the move of Trillanes?

SBSA: Anything that will lead to the possibility of a bloody confrontation cannot be supported. I have always maintained, number one, my father went back for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to a democratic rule. One would want to exhaust all the means. I can understand the sense of frustration not only by Sen Trillanes, but in (a) recent leak to the media (it was) reported that there are scout rangers who were discharged and who claimed that (they) were not even properly investigated. They were even asked to answer the allegations against them. That seems to be a denial of due process. Even here in the Senate we were trying to do our jobs. We have the invocation of the executive privilege ( E.O. 464) and so on and so forth. There really seems to be a narrowing and a weakening of our democratic institutions. It can lead extreme frustration (to some) like what happened today.

Pia: Do you feel responsible, as a Senator, for what Trillanes has done?

SBSA: One would have wanted for him to express this intense frustration through other means. But you also have to understand the human side of the person, (that his decision could have been driven by his own emotions). I mean, even the hearings held inside his detention center were curtailed. When you review the various charges for instance in the Revised Penal Code specifically with how a coup d'etat is committed, it seems to send certain validity of the complaint of some that they were charged incorrectly. I am also looking into that. I am also looking into the validations of denial of due process by the rangers who were discharged and at the appropriate time will file the necessary measure to correct any incorrect applications of the law.

Pia: Have you talked to your mother?

SBSA: Yes in fact I was on my way to the Senate, I was trying to reach my mother to ask why she would be going to her office in Makati which is not too far from Manila Peninsula. In fact she did go to her office and I really managed to convince her to go home sometime around noon.

Pia: Sir lahat kayo nagulat?

SBSA: Under the weather in the past few days, this is my first day to really participate in the budget hearing and I'm trying to prepare for it, and of course (the) effects of the things that happened today. And once the violence starts, you are not actually sure when it would end. And that was the utmost concern of I guess all of us here.

News Latest News Feed