Press Release
December 1, 2007

GOVT TOLD TO STOP LINKING OPPOSITION TO MAKATI INCIDENT

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino "Nene" Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today asked security and law enforcement authorities to stop linking the legitimate opposition to the failed attempt of Sen. Antonio Trillanes to instigate an uprising against the Arroyo government unless it has clear and solid evidence.

"I challenge them to name names. They should not make sweeping accusations and they should stop intimidating people without any proof," he said.

Pimentel said the truth of the matter is that he and other Senate opposition leaders were completely caught by surprise when Trillanes and Army Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim led a group of military mutineers in walking out of their court trial and occupying the Peninsula Hotel in Makati City.

He said he and other opposition senators were attending the Senate Budget Hearings or the 1st Global Parliamentary Meeting on HIV/AIDS at the Manila Hotel when the turmoil in Makati broke out on Nov. 29.

The minority leader said that while the Parliamentary Meeting on HIV/AIDS proceeded without disruption, it brought embarrassment to the Philippines in the eyes of more than 200 delegates from 69 participating countries.

"The Makati incident has had a big effect on the parliamentary conference because it created the international perception that the Philippines is politically unstable," Pimentel said.

Pimentel denounced the arbitrary arrest by the military and police of legitimate members of the media who covered the incident.

"What the government did was an overkill because the members of the media were only doing their job. Obviously the arrest was carried out with the deliberate intention of intimidating the media and into toeing the government line," he said.

Pimentel also said that the government went overboard by imposing a curfew from 12 midnight to 5 a.m. of Nov. 30 (Friday). He said this was not only without legal basis but also without factual basis because the Trillanes-Lim group had already surrendered and the government had declared the alleged rebellion attempt crushed.

He said the curfew smacks of the capricious use of emergency powers without actually declaring emergency rule or martial law.

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