Makati RTC gives Trillanes 5 days to comment; hearing set for Sept. 13

The Makati City Regional Trial court did not issue an alias warrant and a hold departure order (HDO) against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV as prayed for by the Department of Justice after President Duterte nullified the amnesty granted him in 2010.

Instead, Makati Judge Andres Bartolome Soriano gave Trillanes, a former Navy Lieutenant Senior Grade (LTSG) five days from receipt of the order to file a comment on the DOJ motion and set a hearing on the mat-

ter on September 13 at 9 a.m.

The order was issued Tuesday afternoon but was served to the parties yesterday morning.

With this development, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra advised law enforcement agencies to wait for the warrant of arrest before apprehending Trillanes.

“The police will have to wait for the warrant,” he said.

In issuing Proclamation No. 572, the President declared “void ab initio” the amnesty granted to Trillanes for failing to comply with the requirements.

In its motion, the DOJ reminded the Makati RTC that back in 2010, then Judge Oscar Pimentel was supposed to promulgatethe coup d’etat case against Trillanes and his co-accused over their involvement in the Oakwood mutiny in 2003. But the RTC suspended the promulgation when then President Benigno Simeon Aquino III issued Presidential Proclamation No. 75 granting amnesty to the Oakwood mutineers and those involved in the Peninsula Manila siege in 2007.

Citing the Dec. 16, 2010 ruling of the RTC, Judge Pimentel ruled that “the Court cannot render the promulgation moot and academic by reason of Proclamation No. 75 as all the accused has to avail of the Amnesty and that they must qualify per decision of the Commission under the Department of National Defense.”

Acting Prosecutor General Richard Anthony Fadullon earlier revealed that when the Amnesty Commission submitted in 2013 a list of those who complied with the amnesty, Trillanes was not on the list.

TRO

Trillanes said he will challenge the presidential proclamation before the Supreme Court and seek for a temporary restraining order (TRO).

“We will file a petition for TRO in the Supreme Court, because for me, this goes beyond the political lines,” Trillanes told a press briefing at the Senate where he spent the night. Outside the senate building, law enforcement agents stood by to implement the order of the President to arrest the senator.

“That presidential declaration should alarm the justices of the Supreme Court because Duterte has exercised his executive, legislative and judicial powers through it," Trillanesadded.

The senator maintained the coup d’etat and rebellion charges filed against him before Makati RTC Branches 148 and 150 respectively, had already been dismissed, therefore there is no basis for his arrest.

But the former Navy officer said he will not resist arrest, escape or hide if a warrant is issued against him.

Under the Senate rules, a senator cannot be arrested while the Senate is in session. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said senators have immunity only for cases punishable with a jail term of six years.

“Because coup d'état carries a penalty of life imprisonment, he (Trillanes) must surrender. Senators have no immunity for the capital offense of coup d'état,” Roque noted. (With reports from Genalyn D. Kabiling and Vanne Elaine P. Terrazola)