Court sets hearing for Trillanes warrant
MANILA — President Rodrigo Duterte has voided amnesty granted in 2011 to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the president's fiercest critics.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, government officer-incharge while the president is on an official trip abroad, said the voiding of amnesty is premised on Trillanes' supposed failure to comply with the requirement for a grant of amnesty: actually applying for it.
Trillanes, a mutineer and among the leaders of the Magdalo group, had been facing charges of coup d'etat and rebellion in two different courts in Makati.
The Department of Justice said that the court, in 2010, suspended promulgation of the decision on the coup case against him.
The senator said the case has already been dismissed due to the amnesty, which the executive department said was void from the start.
Guevarra told Philstar. com that the court could take Duterte's Proclamation 572 into consideration and revive the case.
WHAT THE DOJ CITES:
2010 RULING
Trillanes was charged with coup d'etat before Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148.
Judge Oscar Pimentel, in an order dated December 16, 2010, said: “[I]f some of the accused would not be able to finish and finalize their applications for amnesty on or before January 22, 2010, then the promulgation of Judgment would as stated above be suspended until a new Judge would be appointed to take charge of this Court.”
“With said manifestation, the Court informed all the accused that the Court will defer the promulgation and resolve the motion of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, James Layug and Gary Alejano, not only to defer the promulgation of the decision and cancellation of the same, but also to consider the promulgation of the decision mooted by Proclamation No. 75,” the court ruling also read.
Pimentel was, at the time, due to retire in three days.
State prosecutors have cited the 2010 decision in seeking the issuance of an alias warrant against Trillanes. Alias warrants are issued when the original warrant has already been returned to the court that issued it. They said the court has yet to promulgate a decision on Trillanes' case: The case is alive.
WHAT TRILLANES AND ALEJANO CITE: 2011 COURT RULING
Branch 148 dismissed the case in a 2011 ruling.
“The instant case against accused [Trillanes, Alejano and Layug] is hereby dismissed pursuant to the grant of amnesty to them by Proclamation No. 75 dated November 24, 2010 by President Benigno Aquino III,” read the order penned by Acting Presiding Judge Ma. Rita Bascos Sarabia.