SEARES: TRILLANES’S AMNESTY

From what Duterte revoked to Honasan’s call to AFP to heed its commander-in-chief: they tend to confuse the public and need to be clarified.

Debate on the revocation of Sen. Antonio Trillanes’s amnesty granted in 2011 continues even as some facts and issues are garbled, from ignorance or ill intent, further confusing many of us.

Consider these:

[1] WHAT IS REVOKED. Much noise is generated by the allegation that President Duterte has revoked the proclamation of his predecessor Benigno Aquino III. It was a political act, concurred with by Congress, and should not be disturbed anymore.

The fact is: what is revoked is not Noynoy Aquino’s proclamation, only the grant of amnesty to Trillanes. The senator, then a Navy lieutenant, allegedly didn’t comply with the requirements. Though Malacañang says it might go after other coup plotters who similarly failed, it was going only after Trillanes for now.

Thus the issue is only on nullifying the grant to individual coup plotters, not on the right of a president to nullify a past president’s proclamation.

Documents can’t be found

[2] DUTY TO PROVE. The burden of proving that Trillanes did not qualify is on the agencies alleging he failed. It is presumed that everyone regularly performed his work in granting the amnesty: the president, Congress, the Department of National Defense.

Once the state, through the president who seeks to revoke Trillanes’s grant, proves that the senator probably failed to meet the conditions, the burden of proof shifts to the senator. He must then present his evidence that he did.

That record keepers lost or cannot find the documents is not evidence that the papers don’t exist. That copies of video and reproduced papers showed up in public affirm that they must exist.

He says, they say

[3] INSISTING ON THEIR VERSION. Despite the version of the facts and the law from Trillanes and independent observers, defenders of the president insist on the moves against the senator. Wrong move? Press on. That’s the war cry.

It’s not like the president and Solicitor General Jose Calida will admit they’re wrong. Duterte though is blaming his “solgen” for bad “research” and terrible advice.

As to the law, ultimately it is what the Supreme Court says it is. But at this stage, the public appears convinced that the Palace fumbled on this one and it could take some contortion by the Supreme Court for the president to wriggle out. His tossing of the blame to Calida suggests he sees this as not going the same way and ending of the “quo warranto” assault on former Supreme Court chief justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

Why the waiting

[4] CHAIN OF COMMAND. Former senator Gringo Honasan, himself a former coup plotter (five times, compared to Trillanes’s two) chided the DND for not heeding the commander-in-chief. The Armed Forces, Gringo said, does not interpret the law; it just obeys orders.

Lawful orders, yes, orders that wouldn’t unnecessarily cause unrest or division. DND doesn’t interpret the law but it can wait for the ruling of the judiciary which interprets the law. Besides, the soldiers’ commander-in-chief publicly said they’d wait for the civil courts to resolve the issue, whether to revive the cases against Trillanes and issue a warrant of arrest.

Of course, it helps

[5] ASCRIBING MOTIVE. Sen. Ping Lacson, asked if he could see ill intent in the moves against Trillanes, said they shouldn’t ascribe motive. He was being prudent but the public can’t be stopped from saying what it sees. Motive, just like in murder, helps the prober identify the murderer and prove guilt.

In Trillanes’s case, the nation knows that the president wants the senator jailed like the other critic, Leila de Lima.

And Calida wants Trillanes to stop the Senate probe on the multibillion-peso deals the solgen’s family bagged from the government.

Not yet anyway

[6] TRILLANES WAS NO HERO, or at least history still has to judge if he was one. As to the voting public, they must have appreciated the rebel. But the same voters who made him senator also elected Lapid and Pacquiao.

To confer Trillanes the status of a hero because the president hounds him now for his misadventures 11-14 years ago would be a stretch. A victim maybe.