Can an amnesty be revoked?

There is no question that the Duterte administration has used new ways of solving issues than the previous administration had. The best example we can give you is the recent case of Quo Warranto against a sitting Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Ma. Lourdes Sereno who was literally booted out of the Judiciary ab initio … meaning, she was never considered a Chief Justice (and supposedly entitled to be called the first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court). Because of the success of the Quo Warranto proceedings against Sereno, now it is Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro who gets the distinction of being the first woman Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the Philippines.

Now comes a new issue … the revocation of the amnesty given to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, which President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte revoked when he signed Proclamation 572 last August 31. This amnesty was given by the previous administration of Pres. Benigno “PNoy” Aquino III in the year 2010. Of course, Trillanes is all over town telling the press that this is a bogus revocation that the president cannot do … not to mention that all the civilian courts have dropped their cases against him, so in effect any arrest warrant against him is called double jeopardy.

However, in the proclamation signed by Pres. Duterte, he pointed out that Trillanes did not file an official Amnesty Application form, as per certification dated August 30, 2018, issued by Lt. Col. Thea Joan Andrade, who said, “there is no copy of his application for amnesty in the records.”

The proclamation also stated that Trillanes “never expressed his guilt for the crimes that were committed on the occasion of the Oakwood Mutiny and the Manila Peninsula Siege in the years 2003 and 2007.”

Yet, despite Trillanes' “failure to apply for amnesty and refusal to admit guilt, his name was nonetheless included among those granted amnesty” in 2010 and was approved by former Defense Chief Voltaire Gazmin. So in the end, the statement of Pres. Duterte claims that Proclamation No.75 given to Trillanes is void ab initio because he did not comply with the minimum requirements to qualify under the Amnesty Proclamation.

This means that Trillanes has to face the legal question on the legality of his amnesty. I fully agree with many observations that once an amnesty is given, it should not be revoked. However, an amnesty must ensure that the person given the amnesty no longer threatens the nation. First of all, regardless of how Trillanes carries himself in the Senate, in my book, his amnesty simply came out as quick as lighting with no one questioning then Pres. PNoy Aquino on why he gave amnesty to a bunch of military adventurers.

In the end, despite the international news that gave a bad reputation to the Philippines, those military mutineers were given amnesty simply because Aquino wasn't an ally of the former Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He even had GMA incarcerated … yet gave an amnesty to mutineers. So the big question is: Is Solicitor General Jose Calida right in having this amnesty revoked? Trillanes pointed out that this was Calida's way to stop the Senate from investigating him for corruption. But in an interview by the media with Solicitor Calida, he merely pointed out that if Trillanes is right, why doesn't he file a case in the Office of the Ombudsman?

Meanwhile, let me point out that I have no love lost for Trillanes simply because I felt that he used his connections to evade the injustice that he did to the Oakwood and Peninsula Hotels. I'm not saying that I'm with Pres. Duterte on his issue … however Trillanes has officially shown to the nation that he was a political lackey of the Aquino family. Hence this is why he got an Amnesty and no one questioned this against Aquino.

But this case is as new as the Quo Warranto case, which means, we will have to find out if the Supreme Court would agree to this case or not? So far other pundits are saying that the Amnesty should have the concurrence of the Legislative Branch, but for me a crime is a crime and what Trillanes and his Magdalo gang had done for our country is not patriotic at all and he must pay for his crimes and should not be called “Honorable”!

* * *

For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@ gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www. philstar.com.