Will this new piece of information bode well for Senator Antonio Trillanes IV?
During the Senate 2019 budget hearing for the Department of National Defense earlier today, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff Carlito Galvez Jr. said that Trillanes did, in fact, apply for an amnesty.
He said that Col. Josefa Berbigal, then the head of the amnesty committee secretariat who oversaw Trillanes’ oath, confirmed this to him, ABS-CBN News reported.
Trillanes, a retired Navy officer, was granted amnesty in 2010 by then-President Benigno Aquino III for his involvement in two coup attempts against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. However, President Rodrigo Duterte declared this amnesty void last month because Trillanes, a vocal Duterte critic, allegedly failed to file the proper documents.
Trillanes has denied this but was not able to provide a copy his amnesty application form, which a Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 judge asked for. Because of this, the same RTC branch ordered his arrest last week.
Trillanes then posted a bail of PHP200,000 (US$3,687.24) and went back to his office in the Senate building where he had been holed up for three weeks. He finally went home late last week after Makati RTC 148, where he also faces coup charges, decided to defer its ruling on the Justice Department’s request for his arrest.
The hearing for the presentation of evidence in Branch 148 is scheduled for Friday.
So where are Trillanes’ amnesty documents? AFP Chief Galvez isn’t sure either. During the budget hearing earlier today, he said that there may have been “lapses” in the process.
“Apparently, Sir,…there [are] some lapses, that the documents were not sent down to the J1 (personnel division) …. Our suspicion, sir, is that the repository where the documents were failed to bring the documents to us in the GHQ (General Headquarters),” Galvez said in Filipino and English.
Trillanes also used the budget hearing to ask Galvez if he thinks Trillanes is involved in the “Red October” plot to oust Duterte. To this, the AFP chief said no, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
