Nacionalista Party senatorial bet lawyer Adel Tamano Sunday called on authorities to allow a detained party mate running for a senatorial seat to campaign.

Tamano said Col. Ariel Querubin, who has joined the senatorial race under the party headed by Sen. Manuel Villar, should be allowed to wage a campaign outside his detention cell because it is well within his constitutional right to do so.

Querubin, a Marine colonel is facing mutiny charges for his alleged participation to overthrow the Arroyo government in 2006.

The charges are connected to the standoff in the Philippine Marines Headquarters in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City also in that same year.

“Let Col. Ariel Querubin campaign. It is his right,” Tamano said in a statement.“Col. Querubin is not a flight risk. It’s his constitutional and democratic right to campaign. Why can’t he exercise those rights?,” Tamano added.

He lamented that even media practitioners are not allowed to interview the jailed officer. “Let’s not deprive Col. Querubin of the chance to let the people know what he aims to do for the development of this country,” Tamano said.

Another colleague Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim who is also facing mutiny charges has also joined the senatorial race but is running under the Liberal Party.

Sen. Antonio Trillanes, IV, one of the junior officers who launched a mutiny at a hotel in Makati City won the 2007 senatorial race but has yet to attend his first session at the Senate. Trillanes is still detained at a military camp.