Remembering the Manila Pen siege: A detained senator, a hotel that has bounced back
By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
November 29, 2008
It all started from a walkout from a court hearing of soldiers facing charges on the failed Oakwood mutiny in 2003. What followed, however, was an unfolding of intense and gripping events comparable to an action series on television. The event was full of suspense but for Filipinos it was just one of those upheavals that occasionally rock the political landscape of the Philippines.
The Manila Peninsula siege, which occurred exactly a year ago, has all the ingredients of drama—a senator elected by 11 million Filipinos but was not allowed to serve, a group of soldiers calling for protest actions against a hugely unpopular president, bishops and opposition figures expressing support for them, guests who were forced to leave a hotel after it was occupied by the soldiers, government forces outnumbering the mutineers and a horde of reporters who, unfortunately, ended as the subject of the news.
After Senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Brig, Gen. Danilo Lim and other soldiers walked out of the court hearing, they marched through the streets of Makati City .The soldiers then proceeded to The Peninsula Manila—a posh hotel in the financial district popularly known as Manila Pen—where they held a press conference and called for the ouster of President Arroyo.
Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr, former University of the Philippines president Francisco Nemenzo and Catholic bishops Antonio Tobias and Julio Labayen joined Trillanes and Lim at the hotel.
Click here to read the rest of the story.
Photo:www.newsbreak.com.ph
