Sans running mate, Trillanes seeks vice presidency

In late June or nearly four months before the filing of certificates of candidacy, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV had announced that he was "100 percent sure" about seeking the second highest elective post in the land.
 

Early this month, Trillanes formally declared his intention to seek higher office, a bid that he says is "not shooting for the moon," even when he's going up against five other officials, including two fellow members at the Nacionalista Party.

After all, this was a man who first won a seat in the Senate while in detention during the 2007 mid-term elections.

 

Before he pursued elective positions in government, Trillanes was a Navy officer whose designations included being acting commanding officer of Patrol Gunboat (June 1999 to January 2000) and administrative/personnel officer at HQ Patrol. He belongs to the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1995.

 

The former Navy lieutenant senior grade, however, got public attention as spokesman of the Magdalo, a group of soldiers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines which took over took over the Oakwood Premiere in Ayala Center, Makati on July 27, 2003. 

 

It was a protest against alleged anomalies in the Armed Forces, where they also demanded for the resignations of ranking officials, including then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and then-Defense Sec. Angelo Reyes.

 

Because of the incident, he was among those charged then detained for coup d'etat. 

First Senate win 

 

While in detention, he ran for the Senate as an independent in 2007, where he ranked 11th.

Following the elections, he was charged with rebellion after walking out of a court hearing. He led the takeover of the Peninsula Manila Hotel on Nov. 29, 2007, where he again expressed his opposition to President Arroyo.

 

Three years later and with President Benigno Aquino III succeeding Arroyo, Trillanes was granted temporary freedom by the Makati Regional Trial Court in December 2010. The following month, he applied for amnesty, which was approved within the month. 

 

He and other Magdalo soldiers were able to avail of amnesty by virtue of Proclamation 75, issued by President Aquino in November 2010.

 

He sought re-election as part of the NP, which forged a partnership with the Liberal Party for the 2013 mid-term elections. He ranked ninth.

 

In his second term, he has chaired several committees, including those on National Defense and Security, and Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation. 

 

He has also headed the Congressional Oversight Committee on the AFP Modernization Act, as well as the Select Oversight Committee on Intelligence and Confidential Funds, and Legislative Oversight Committee on the Visiting Forces Agreement.

 

Rift with Binay

 

Aside from legislative work, Trillanes made headlines anew in his word war with Vice President Jejomar Binay, whose alleged anomalies during his term as Makati mayor became the subject of a year-long Senate blue ribbon subcommittee hearing.

 

Trillanes and Binay were even supposed to engage in a debate. Binay, however, later announced he was backing out of it because he had been pre-judged. 

Family