Turns out that 2018 didn’t end right for Duterte critic Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 upheld his earlier decision to have the senator arrested for rebellion when he junked Trillanes’ appeal which asked the court to abide by a 2011 ruling that dismissed the case. The judge’s six-page decision was dated Dec. 18, 2018 but was only released to the media yesterday.
In his decision, Alameda said that Trillanes wasn’t able to prove that he filed his application for amnesty and that he failed to show that he “expressly admitted his guilt in the application form for the crime he committed,” ABS-CBN News reported.
The “crime” Alameda referred to is the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege against then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, in which Trillanes led a band of soldiers and took over the hotel’s ballroom.
Trillanes was granted amnesty for the crime in 2010 by then-President Benigno Aquino III but President Rodrigo Duterte voided the amnesty via Proclamation No. 572 issued in September due to the senator’s alleged failure to file an Official Amnesty Application Form.
It was also in September that Trillanes asked the Supreme Court to issue a temporary restraining order against Duterte’s proclamation, but the SC denied his request, the Philippine Star reported.
The ruling also said: “Sen. Trillanes bears the burden of proving that he indeed filed his application for amnesty and admitted his guilt rather than the prosecution proving that he did not apply for amnesty and did not admit his guilt.
“Sen. Trillanes’ inability to present the official original copy duly stamp marked received or even a photocopy of the application form bars him from proving alleged contents thereof.”
By issuing the ruling, Alameda is reopening the case which was initially dismissed, reported the Philippine Star.
Alameda had asked Trillanes to submit a copy of the application form last year but Atty. Reynaldo Robles, the senator’s lawyer, admitted that they couldn’t find the document, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
The judge previously dismissed the sworn affidavit by Colonel Josefa Barbigal, the head of the secretariat of the Department of National Defense (DND), who testified that the lawmaker filed his application form, Rappler reported.
Meanwhile, Robles said in a statement yesterday that they will not comment on Alameda’s decision. He said: “Needless to state, we will consider the possibility of appealing or questioning the ruling before the higher courts.
Trillanes remains free after he posted a PHP200,000 bail (more than US$3,812) in September.
Alameda’s decision differs with the one issued by Judge Andres Soriano of Makati RTC Branch 148 who ruled that Trillanes filed his amnesty application form. Soriano also said that Trillanes admitted his guilt with regards to his participation in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny.
Trillanes is one of Duterte’s most vocal critics. The senator 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 people dead.
If imprisoned, Trillanes will become the second senator to be jailed during the Duterte administration. The first one, Senator Leila de Lima, is currently jailed 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.
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