MANILA – Malacañang justified President Rodrigo Duterte’s revocation of the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
It should have been then President Benigno Aquino III who signed Trillanes’ certificate of amnesty in 2011 and not then Defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said Monday.
Duterte “believes that it should have been former president Aquino that granted the amnesty on Senator Trillanes and not Gazmin,” Roque told a media briefing.
“The wording of the Constitution is that the granting of pardon and amnesty should be certified and personally signed by the president. He cannot delegate it to his secretary,” Roque added.
But the Palace official refused to comment if the amnesty granted to Trillanes’ fellow soldiers in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 Peninsula Manila hotel siege – also certified by Gazmin – will be revoked as well.
“Only Trillanes’ amnesty was voided. May basehan sa kanya ang naunang na-revoke dahil siya ang tumatayong lider ng mutiny,” Roque said.
Via Proclamation 572 signed on Aug. 31, Duterte declared Trillanes’ amnesty void because the senator failed to comply with “minimum requirements to qualify under the amnesty proclamation.”
Duterte also ordered that Trillanes be arrested “so that he can be recommitted to the detention facility where he had been incarcerated for him to stand trial for crimes he is charged with.”
‘PUBLIC ADDRESS’
Meanwhile Roque said Duterte will address the public on Tuesday afternoon.
But the presidential spokesman refused to disclose what the President will say via live television at 3 p.m.
“The President just said that he wants to talk to the nation pero wala akong alam personally kung ano’ng gusto niyang sabihin,” Roque said.
Among the issues currently hounding the country are the 6.4 percent inflation rate in August, the highest in the past nine years, and the rising prices of rice due to the depleted buffer stock of the National Food Authority./PN
