Magdalo hearing ends without incident

In over an hour, the Makati Regional Trial Court hearing on the coup d'etat case against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other soldiers accused for their involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny ended Tuesday morning without any untoward incident. Radio dzBB reported that at 10:45 a.m., security personnel started ushering out Trillanes and his co-accused from the courtroom back the their respective detention cells. Trillanes and the Oakwood soldiers remained under tight security throughout the hearing. Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, who stood as witness for the Magdalo soldiers during the proceedings, was also tightly guarded after leading, along with Trillanes, a courtroom walkout and a standoff in Makati City last November 29. The report said Lim was expected to be cross-examined during the hearing over his testimony on the negotiations between government emissaries and leaders of the Magdalo group which ended the Oakwood mutiny on July 27, 2003. The report noted that security remained tight inside and outside the courtroom, with Army soldiers and police keeping watch outside the court building. Media representatives were also disallowed from getting near the courtroom and were confined to a room several meters away from the hearing venue. Anti-riot police and Air Force personnel with fiberglass shields kept media away from the accused, preventing them from conducting any interviews. - GMANews.TV