The government amnesty awarded to Senator Antonio Trillanes, one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s most vocal critics, was revoked by the president late last month and announced to the public today.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that Duterte revoked the amnesty, which was given to Trillanes by then President Benigno Aquino III in 2010, due to Trillanes’ alleged failure to file an Official Amnesty Application Form.
In response, Aquino’s former spokesperson Abigail Valte posted a video on Twitter today which showed Trillanes filing the application for amnesty.
Sen. Trillanes did not file an amnesty application? Too much bukbok rice, it seems. Here’s a video of the filing of that application https://t.co/VdPi0LSfXT
— Abi Valte (@Abi_Valte) September 4, 2018
Proclamation No. 572, which voids Trillanes’ amnesty, was published today in the advertisement section of the Manila Times, a broadsheet whose chairman emeritus Dante Ang is Duterte’s special envoy for international public relations.
Ang is also a loyalist of former president and current House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a known supporter of Duterte.
The proclamation instructs the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to pursue all criminal and administrative cases against the senator, a former soldier, for his participation in military uprisings against then-President Arroyo in 2003 and 2007.
In an interview with ABS-CBN News, DOJ Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed Duterte’s signing of the proclamation.
Trillanes denied the government’s charge that he did not file for an amnesty.
He said in Filipino: “You will not be given an amnesty if you didn’t file for an application. That’s clear. That’s why I think this is a clear case of political persecution because they couldn’t file a case against me so they had to invent something.”
According to GMA News, 40 members of the AFP and the Philippine National Police have arrived at the Senate building today. It’s unclear if they were at the Senate to arrest Trillanes.
A former Navy lieutenant, Trillanes led a band of soldiers 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 Arroyo’s tenure.
He 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.
Trillanes has been a thorn on Duterte’s side even before he became president two years ago. In 2016, Trillanes filed a plunder complaint against Duterte, back when the latter was still the mayor of Davao City.
Trillanes is also a vocal critic of Duterte’s anti-drug campaign. In a report from the Philippine Star, he even called it a “sham” and as a precursor to the establishment of a dictatorship.
True to his nature, Duterte has never taken Trillanes’ attacks in stride. Three months ago, GMA News reported that Duterte said that Trillanes might be “shot” one day due to his “arrogance.”
Trillanes will become the second senator to be imprisoned 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.
The inmates were allegedly linked to the drug trade and the money was allegedly used to fund De Lima’s senatorial campaign.
Like Trillanes, de Lima is known as a vocal critic of the president.
