Ex-Marcos lawyer sues Aquino, Trillanes for treason over 'backdoor talks'

A former lawyer of the late President Ferdinand Marcos who is also known for filing alleged bogus impeachment complaints against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday charged President Benigno Aquino III and Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV with treason.   The five-page complaint-affidavit, filed by Atty. Oliver Lozano with the Office of the Ombudsman, was in connection with the government’s backdoor negotiations to settle the country’s territorial dispute with China over the Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal.   "I, Atty. Oliver O. Lozano, hereby charge [Aquino and Trillanes] for treason, by way of test case, committed as follows: With alleged go-signal of President Aquino, Senator Trillanes surreptitiously negotiated with Chinese officials regarding the Philippines-China Sea Dispute in order to benefit China to the prejudice of the Philippines amounting to treason," Lozano said in his complaint.   Lozano used as basis for his complaint the "media accounts" on Trillanes’ recent verbal joust with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.   During a session in the Senate last Wednesday, Trillanes announced he was leaving the majority bloc because he no longer trusts Enrile as Senate President and even accused him of being a lackey of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Trillanes, quoting a newspaper report, claimed Arroyo was responsible for influencing Enrile to "railroad" a House bill seeking the division of Camarines Sur.   Enrile fought back and accused Trillanes of being a "fraud" and even of undermining the Philippines’ interest in his talks with Chinese officials.   Malacañang had confirmed Trillanes' "backdoor negotiations" but said it was the lawmaker who volunteered for the job. Contrary to that claim, Trillanes said it was Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa Jr. who offered him the job during a social event in the Palace last May.    According to Lozano, his "complaint will lead to legal dispute resolution that will end wild and bare speculations that Sen. Trillanes IV allegedly desires China support in his alleged Presidential ambition in consideration for territorial surrender with PNoy support; thereby alienating US support against invaders."   Aquino has already barred Trillanes from speaking on the issue.   Lozano said he decided to file the case "in order to close the Enrile-Trillanes controversy through due process... instead of protracted worsening word-war in Tri-media that may lead to ugly violence."   Lozano was behind several impeachment complaints against Arroyo from 2005 to 2008. None of the complaints, however, became successful, and critics of the Arroyo administration branded the complaints as “weak” and “bogus” designed to trigger off the one-year ban in filing impeachment complaints against one individual. — Mark D. Merueñas/KBK, GMA News