Order vs Trillanes amnesty valid — DOJ exec

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has insisted anew that President Duterte’s order invalidating the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV by the previous administration is legal.

DOJ’s acting prosecutor-general Richard Anthony Fadullon said that Duterte’s Proclamation 572 is “a valid exercise” of the President’s executive power.

In an opposition paper filed yesterday, the DOJ said the President has the power and responsibility to rectify the erroneous inclusion of Trillanes among those granted amnesty because the senator failed to comply with the requirement.

The paper was in reply to a motion for reconsideration earlier filed by Trillanes before the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148.

The DOJ said the President’s order does not constitute usurpation of judicial power.

“Proclamation 572 only aimed to correct the erroneous grant of amnesty to Trillanes,” the DOJ said, adding the senator’s alleged non-admission of guilt to his participation in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny could have been considered a withdrawal of his application for amnesty.

The court, under presiding judge Oscar Pimentel, dismissed the coup d’etat charges filed against Trillanes in relation to the mutiny.

The DOJ said the court was made to believe by Trillanes that he had complied with all the requirements and was qualified to be granted amnesty.

It described Proclamation 75, issued by former president Benigno Aquino III granting amnesty to Trillanes and other soldiers involved in military uprisings, as “a heavily scripted process.”

“Trillanes’ misrepresentation” misled Aquino to grant him amnesty, and even resulted in the lack of opposition by the solicitor general at the time, the DOJ said.

While Trillanes insisted that he had filed his application for amnesty, the justice department said the senator’s subsequent pronouncement that he did not admit guilt should be taken against him.