MANILA – The Department of Justice asked a trial court judge to partially reconsider a decision denying its request to have Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV arrested for a previously dismissed coup d’état case.
State prosecutors filed a motion for partial reconsideration before Judge Andres Soriano at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra said Friday.
Soriano, the presiding judge of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148, will hear the motion on Oct. 30, Guevarra told reporters.
Guevarra had said the Justice department will contest only Soriano’s factual findings – that Trillanes applied for amnesty and admitted his guilt for his participation in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, among others, contradicting the basis of the President Rodrigo Duterte’s proclamation that revoked the senator’s amnesty.
While Soriano refused to order Trillanes’ arrest on account of the “final” dismissal of the coup d’état case in 2011, he recognized the legality of Proclamation 572, the directive that declared the administration critic’s amnesty void from the beginning.
Soriano’s ruling, seen as largely favorable to Trillanes, clashes with that of a fellow Makati judge, Elmo Alameda, who ordered the senator arrested last month for a similarly dismissed rebellion case.
Now out on bail, Trillanes is contesting Alameda’s ruling. Alameda has ordered the filing of necessary pleadings before he rules on the senator’s motion for reconsideration.
Lawyers said Soriano and Alameda’s conflicting findings may eventually have to be resolved by the Supreme Court, which is already saddled with a petition assailing the constitutionality of Proclamation 572. (GMA News)
