MANILA – The Department of Justice and Office of the Solicitor General are not yet done on their bid to have opposition senator Antonio Trillanes IV arrested for his coup d’etat case.
Justice secretary Menardo Guevarra said his office and the OSG is set to elevate Trillanes’ coup d’etat case to the Court of Appeals after it was denied twice by Makati City Regional Trial Court.
“The OSG will file the necessary petition for certiorari with the CA in so far only as the resolution of Branch 148 denying our motion for issuance of warrant of arrest and hold departure order,” Guevarra added.
The planned elevation of the case came weeks after the Makati City RTC Branch 148 junked the prosecution’s request twice for an arrest warrant and a hold departure order against Trillanes.
Presiding Judge Andres Soriano first denied the appeal of the prosecution in October 2018, saying they cannot undo the dismissal of Trillanes’ coup d’etat charges due to a doctrine that a “final and executory judgment shall be immutable.”
The court, however, upheld the legality of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation Order No. 572, arguing that it was purely an executive act “sought to correct what the executive branch perceives to be an erroneous grant of amnesty to Trillanes.”
The camp of Trillanes and the DOJ filed their subsequent appeals, but was also junked by the court in November 2018.
The DOJ are pushing for the re-arrest of Trillanes after Duterte issued Proclamation Order No. 572, revoking the senator’s amnesty that was provided during the time of former president Benigno Aquino III./PN
