9 Magdalo Officers Sentenced, Expect Pardon

MANILA — A Philippine court sentenced on Tuesday nine military officers who participated in a 2003 coup attempt against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, with two of them getting jail terms of as much as 40 years.

The officers, along with 22 other soldiers, raided and occupied a hotel in Makati City, the country’s business district, in July 2003, complaining about corruption in the military and demanding reforms.

The mutiny, which was the worst threat the Arroyo administration had faced, lasted only a day after the mutineers all surrendered to the authorities. Most of their leaders ended up in jail, while some remain in hiding. One of them, then Lieutenant Senior Grade Antonio Trillanes IV of the Philippine Navy, ran and won a Senate seat even while incarcerated.

Judge Oscar Pimentel, who presided an often emotional trial that lasted five years, sentenced two officers – Captains Gerardo Gambala and Milo Maestrecampo of the Army’s Scout Rangers – to 40 years in jail and the other seven officers to 12 years.

Government prosecutors said the sentence was harsher than what they anticipated. “The decision caught us by surprise,” said Richard Fadullon, a prosecutor. “It’s harsher than what we expected,” he said, adding that they only wanted a maximum 20-year sentence for the accused.

“Our judicial system is taking its due course. I appreciate them for having pleaded guilty,” said General Hermogenes Esperon, the armed forces chief of staff.

There had been speculation that the accused had reached a deal with the prosecutors after they changed last week their plea to not guilty. Prosecutors and defense lawyers denied a plea bargain had been arranged.

Trixie Angeles, the lawyer of some of the accused, said the officers were now nonetheless going to expect pardon from the president because of their decision to change their plea.

“It would be normal for us to expect pardon,” Angeles told reporters on Tuesday. She said Esperon was “instrumental” in the officers’ decision to change their plea.

In December, 53 soldiers who participated in coup attempt were freed after pleading guilty. Several of the accused, including Gambala and Maestrecampo, had likewise publicly apologized to Arroyo for their role in the mutiny.

Prosecutors had argued that the mutiny was part of a larger plot to oust Arroyo and install a civilian-military junta. Since she took power in a 2001 uprising against then president Joseph Estrada, Arroyo had faced various accusations, mainly allegations of corruption, that continues to threaten her presidency.

Trillanes, the leader of the 2003 mutiny, himself alleged that corruption was so rampant in the armed forces that soldiers, according to him, were being killed because of inadequate supply and facilities in the field, a charge the military had denied.

He also accused the military and the administration of having had a hand in bombings in the southern region of the country that killed many civilians. The government laughed off the allegation as a conspiracy theory concocted by Trillanes and leftist activists.

Trillanes and another officer, Captain Nicanor Faeldon, have not been convicted yet and are facing the same criminal trial and a separate court-martial hearing. Faeldon remains at large after escaping from a police dragnet during a standoff – also led by Trillanes – at the Peninsula Hotel in November.

The Philippine military is notorious for being fractious. After being controlled for decades by the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos, elements within broke away in 1986, an act that led to Marcos’s downfall. In 2001, the military played a major role in unseating then President Joseph Estrada. (PinoyPress)