CA nullifies revival of Trillanes’ rebellion case
Former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who launched multiple coup attempts against former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, will stay a free man.
The Court of Appeals (CA) on Tuesday granted Trillanes’ motion to dismiss the revival of a rebellion case against him for his role in the 2007 siege of Manila Peninsula.
In a 59-page decision penned by Associate Justice Apolinario D. Bruselas Jr., the CA’s Sixth Division granted Trillanes’ petition for certiorari to nullify the order by Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 Presiding Judge Elmo Alameda on 25 September 2018 and 18 December 2018.
Alameda, in the 25 September order, upheld the legality of President
Duterte’s Proclamation 572 that revoked the grant of amnesty to Trillanes by former President Aquino through Proclamation 75.
It paved the way for the rebellion case, the issuance of an arrest warrant and a hold departure order against the senator.
Trillanes’ motion for reconsideration was junked by the trial court on 18 December that same year.
The trial court stressed Trillanes failed to comply with the minimum requirements to be entitled to amnesty under Proclamation 75.
Although the appellate court CA affirmed the constitutionality of Proclamation 572, it pointed out however that the Department of Justice failed to comply with the procedural rules in assailing the validity of the Makati RTC’s dismissal of the rebellion case in 2011.