How to catch a mutineer: the Philippine senator spooking Duterte
Antonio Trillanes IV led a failed military siege on former leader Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2003. Now a vocal critic of the firebrand president, he may find himself back behind bars sooner rather than later
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is now Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte’s public enemy number one. Last week, the president ordered his arrest to face a military court for trying to unseat a former president when he was a 32-year-old navy lieutenant. But the officers sent to detain the 47-year-old senator were stopped by the Senate president because they had no arrest warrant.
Duterte’s action may have looked sudden but it wasn’t. A year ago, the president told the nation’s top businessmen that Trillanes “is bent on destroying me”. “So I destroy him or he will destroy me. That’s just the way it is,” he said.
Duterte wants to arrest Trillanes over the 2003 siege he led on Oakwood Premier Ayala Centre (now Ascott Makati), demanding military reforms and the resignation of president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The day-long Oakwood siege failed and Trillanes along with 323 soldiers who called themselves the Magdalo group surrendered and were jailed.
Trillanes was pardoned in 2010 by Duterte’s predecessor, president Benigno Aquino III. But Duterte, an Arroyo ally, revoked that pardon last week. The senator now is holed up in the Senate building in Manila. He said he tried to leave on Thursday but stayed after staff saw men on motorcycles following his official car.
A few things missing in flood-hit Manila. Duterte is one of them
Duterte revoked Trillanes’ pardon on the grounds his application form was missing; he never expressed guilt or apologised; and Aquino did not sign the amnesty papers. Trillanes is contesting all three grounds in court.