Judge Andres Soriano of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 today denied the request of the Department of Justice (DOJ) to have embattled Senator Antonio Trillanes IV arrested for his involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny in Makati.
The case was dismissed seven years ago but was revived by the DOJ when President Rodrigo Duterte, the senator’s nemesis, voided Trillanes’ amnesty, stated GMA News.
If Trillanes were arrested, he would have ended up in jail because his coup d’ etat case is non-bailable, reported CNN Philippines.
Appearing at the Senate in front of reporters, a visibly happy Trillanes said that he had an inkling that Soriano would decide not to have him arrested.
He said: “Let’s just say objectively we were expecting that there will be a good decision because of the fact that he (the judge) studied this [case] and he gave us the chance for both parties, he admitted the evidence we offered. When the afternoon arrived we feel there was no warrant because otherwise, he would have released [the warrant] earlier.”
Perhaps alluding to actor Aga Muhlach who blasted him and asked if he were exhausted with fighting the government, Trillanes said: “I will just continue to do my job. This is not…I would be driven by hate or what. No…. Nothing changes I will be the same critic as I was before. I’m just upholding my role in our democracy as a member of the opposition. Those who are getting a little exhausted with me, don’t be exhausted. This is me. Democracy needs people like me.”
However, Philippine Star said that Soriano upheld the legality of Duterte’s Proclamation 572, which declared the revocation of Trillanes’ amnesty initially granted to him in 2010 by then President Benigno Aquino III.
Trillanes’ amnesty was declared null and void due to his alleged failure to file an Official Amnesty Application Form and admit guilt.
Trillanes has denied the government’s charge that he did not submit the necessary requirements.
The Philippine Star reported that in the hearing for Trillanes’ case on Oct. 5, Lt. Col. Thea Joan Andrade, Chief of the Discipline, Law and Order Division of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel testified that there was no copy of Trillanes’ amnesty application.
However, she said she did not mean that Trillanes never applied for amnesty.
Last month, Makati RTC Branch 150 ordered Trillanes’ arrest in connection with the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege but the senator posted a PHP200,000 (more than US$3,679) bail.
The same RTC asked him to provide a copy of his amnesty form but he failed to do so.
The senator has been a thorn on Duterte’s side even before the latter became president.
Trillanes filed a plunder complaint against him back when he was mayor of Davao City. He has also consistently criticized Duterte’s bloody campaign against drugs which has left an estimated 12,000 suspects dead.
A former Navy lieutenant, Trillanes led a band of soldiers called Magdalo in two uprisings: first was the 2003 takeover of the Oakwood Hotel in Makati; and the second was the 2007 occupation of the Manila Peninsula Hotel also in the same city.
Both uprisings occurred as a protest against the alleged widespread corruption during President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s tenure.
Trillanes successfully campaigned for a seat at the Senate in 2007, despite being in prison. He was detained for seven years until he received his amnesty in 2010.
If imprisoned, Trillanes will become the second senator to be jailed during the Duterte administration. The first one, Senator Leila de Lima, was jailed last year at Camp Crame for allegedly extorting money from inmates of the New Bilibid Prisons when she was the country’s secretary of Justice.
Like Trillanes, de Lima is known as a vocal critic of the president.
