Trillanes goes home
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is out of the Senate for the first time in weeks after getting a temporary relief from his possible arrest following the voiding of his amnesty.
After almost a month of being holed up in his office, Trillanes packed his things and finally went home in Antipolo City yesterday morning.
On Friday, the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148, which hears the opposition lawmaker’s non-bailable coup d’etat case, decided to defer its decision on the motion of the Department of Justice for an arrest order and hold departure against him as it set a hearing for the two parties on October 5 to present their respective evidence on the issue of his voided amnesty.
Until then, and the court’s resolution on his case, Trillanes is a free man for now.
“It’s going to be a refreshing experience. I can just imagine just being able to sleep in your own bed, makakaligo ka na nang maayos (you can shower properly)... but sabi ko nga (like I said ), I’m not complaining. Pero ‘yon lang, babalik sa dating (I will go back to the old0 routine that I’m used to. I’m looking forward to that,” Trillanes said when asked by reporters in a brief in terview in Senate prior to his departure past 10 a.m. Saturday.
He arrived in his house in Antipolo City around 11:30 a.m., accompanied by Magdalo Representative Gary Alejano and some members of the press.
Trillanes said he will spend his weekend with his family. He also plans to visit his ailing mother, who has been confined in a hospital as he stayed in the Senate premises.
Dangerous precedent
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon warned that peace in strife-torn, Muslimdominated Mindanao will be shaky after the President’s voiding of the amnesty granted by the Aquino administration to Trillanes.
Drilon said he is sure that one of the documents that would be given out by Malacañang to the officials and armed component of the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would be an amnesty.
The grant of amnesty to the MILF is a given after the proposed Bangasamoro Organic Law (BOL) is approved through a plebiscite to be held in January.
The MILF has thousands of heavilyarmed fighters.
Thousands of soldiers, secessionist fighters and civilians have died since the secessionist movement flared up in the 1970s.
“Ngayon kung ang amnesty pwede pala buwagin ng susunod na pangulo paano mo sasabihin na tapos na ang gulo sa Midnanao kung pwede mong buksan uli? (Now that an amnesty could be revoked by a succeeding President, how can we say there will be peace in Mindanao?)” Drilon, a former Justice secretary, asked during a radio interview yesterday
He said he found the President’s revocation of Trillanes’ amnesty given seven years ago as “disturbing” and does not lead to stability in the country. (With a report from Mario B. Casayuran)