Two years after Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and other Magdalo soldiers took over a posh hotel in Makati City, the two cases that stemmed from their failed uprising have not progressed considerably, authorities admitted Sunday.

While the rebellion case against the mutinous soldiers hasn’t even reached the pre-trial stage, the appeal on the multi-million-peso class suit filed by media men against government authorities who ordered their warrantless arrest is still pending for resolution before the Court of Appeals (CA).

The pre-trial of the rebellion case against Trillanes and his men was postponed for at least eight times before the sala of Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150. The case was postponed mostly because the defense is either completing its list of evidence or still awaiting the resolution of the CA on its motion for certiorari.

According to the Department of Justice, the slow movement of the proceedings is normal, but the delay is largely because the defense is exhausting all legal remedies to win the case.

“The progress of the case is just normal but, we could get away with it if only the defense would stop filing motions at the CA. Pending incidents at the CA are only delaying the proceedings at the trial court,” State Prosecutor Diosdado Solidum Jr. said.

But according to defense counsel Ernesto Francisco, the defense has the right to challenge the allegation since the group was initially charged with inciting to sedition and not the crime of rebellion.

"Marching along the streets of Makati City going towards the Peninsula Manila Hotel, and thereat hold a press conference where an anti-administration statement was read are acts that do not constitute the crime of rebellion. The group was charged with a crime that did not transpire. As long as they air legitimate grievances, what is wrong with airing them?" Francisco said.

The defense counsel said the Department of Justice is partly to blame for the delayed proceedings because Solidum and the government’s battery of lawyers have been presenting numerous witnesses during the pending bail hearing.

“A bail hearing should ideally be a summary hearing. Considering the urgency of the bail hearing, the prosecution should have limited its witnesses. But with what is happening now, that is not the case,” Francisco said.

On the other hand, the media men who covered the hotel siege have also resorted to the CA after Judge Reynaldo Laigo of Makati RTC branch 56 dismissed their multi-million-peso class suit against government
authorities who directed their warrantless arrest.

It would be recalled that print and broadcast journalists who were arrested while covering the hotel siege claimed that they were illegally arrested and "processed" at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City together with Trillanes and his men.

The complainants said government authorities continued to make "threats" or “warnings" to arrest or charge media practitioners who "ignore or interfere" in the conduct of police or military operations.

Although the dismissal of the case saddened the journalists, counsel Harry Roque Jr. said he is confident that the appellate court will rule to their advantage, adding that the illegal arrest of the media men was a glaring violation of press freedom.

"We have filed the appeal since July, 2008, right after the dismissal of the case at the RTC. Even if it takes time for the CA to rule on our appeal, we are confident that it will overturn the dismissal and uphold our contention," Roque said.