On Tulfo’s false allegations against Trillanes

(Please retrieve the link for me. I'm too lazy to do it. Thanks.)

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:27:00 07/14/2009

Filed Under: Antonio Trillanes IV

Please allow me to respond to Ramon Tulfo’s personal attacks against Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV. (Inquirer, 7/7/09)

1. Many cars. Trillanes never owned any luxury vehicles when he was in the military. Trillanes’ only vehicle when he was with the Navy was a second-hand Nissan Terrano, which he sold in 2007 to finance his campaign. The fact is, in 2003, an ill-gotten wealth case relating to the alleged vehicles was dismissed because the documents the CIDG submitted in support of its allegation were found to be spurious: the vehicles were supposedly registered under his name in 1900!

2. House in exclusive village. Trillanes does not own a house in an exclusive village. And he did not own a house at all when he was still with the Navy. He and his family used to live at his wife’s quarters at the PMA in Baguio City. Trillanes, however, recently acquired a vacant lot (300 sq m) also at the Town and Country Homes under Pag-Ibig’s Home Financing II Program. You can verify these claims with the Register of Deeds of Rizal and Pag-Ibig.

3. Tiff with Dutchman and wife. The couple referred to, Anastacia Santarin and Adrian de Jager, have been locked in a dispute with a certain Estelita Pabalan over a vacant lot (there was no house) in Novaliches since 1999. The property was leased by Trillanes—who did not know of the dispute—as parking lot for his mother’s rent-a-van business in early 2003. Sometime in March 2003, Santarin and De Jager forced their way into the premises, shoved the caretaker out and refused to leave. When Trillanes was informed of the incident, he went to talk to Santarin. He never met De Jager. Due to the couple’s refusal to leave, Trillanes reported the matter to the barangay chair. That was the extent of his participation in this matter.

A few days later, Pabalan and the caretaker reported the matter to the police. When they came to investigate, the policemen were attacked by De Jager with a knife. The policemen arrested De Jager and charged him in court with attempted homicide. He was jailed because of this and not because of anything that Trillanes did. In fact, Trillanes had no involvement whatsoever in either the land dispute case or De Jager’s criminal case. Court records bear this out.

After the Oakwood incident, this couple tried to cut a deal with the government by offering themselves as witnesses against Trillanes in exchange for a favorable ruling in the land dispute. Fortunately, the police and/or prosecutors found their claim to be dubious and incredible. The couple later filed a case against Trillanes before the Ombudsman but the case was dismissed for lack of merit.

4. Abusive behavior. Tulfo claims that Trillanes was abusive when he was a mere Navy lieutenant and that Trillanes was a “problem detainee as [he] always quarreled with [his] jailers.”

Apart from Tulfo and the De Jager couple with their bogus and recycled claims, we are not aware of anyone who claims to have been victimized by Trillanes’ so-called abuses.

—REYNALDO B. ROBLES,
legal counsel of Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV,
Chan Robles & Associates Law Firm,
Suite 2205-B, 22nd Floor,
Philippine Stock Exchange Centre,
Tektite East Tower, Exchange Road,
Ortigas Center, Pasig City