INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Trillanes to appeal court ruling barring media access to him

INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- Senatorial candidate and detained military officer Antonio Trillanes on Saturday said he will appeal the judge’s ruling barring reporters from interviewing him from his detention at the Marine Base in Fort Bonifacio.

In a statement released to media outfits Saturday, he admitted to being “greatly disappointed” by the ruling of Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel, who had earlier promised to grant him access to media once he files his certificate of candidacy.

Trillanes said his detention already puts him at a “great disadvantage” in his senatorial campaign. He assured the court that he would not discuss the merits of his coup d’ etat case during his interviews with the media.

“I honestly believe that the public, through the media, has the right to learn about and hear from the candidates seeking their mandate. It would be great injustice if the court were to deprive me of the only means available to me to be able to effectively communicate my views and opinions as well as my plans and legislative program to the public,” he said.

“I believe with great faith that my motion was fair and reasonable. I am not asking that I be allowed to go out of my place of detention to campaign. I know my place and I will never ask for anything which would be unreasonable,” added the former Navy official.

At the same time, his supporters at the Trillanes for Senator Movement called the decision “unfair.”

“We are afraid that this may be part of a deliberate scheme by the powers that be to prevent Mr. Trillanes to effectively pursue his senatorial campaign,” they said in a statement.

They said Trillanes’s request is “certainly more reasonable” than that of Nur Misuari, former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, whose request to be released from detention and transferred to a residence in New Manila, Quezon City was granted by another Makati RTC.

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