MANILA – The Office of Solicitor General (OSG) contested before the Court of Appeals a Makati City Regional Trial Court’s (RTC) verdict refusing to order the arrest of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.
Solicitor General Jose Calida argued in his petition that Makati City RTC Branch 148 Judge Andres Soriano committed grave abuse of discretion when he rejected the Department of Justice’s bid for an arrest warrant against Trillanes.
Calida was the one who initiated the recovery of the invalidity of the amnesty provided to Trillanes, a former Navy officer involved in the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege.
Judge Soriano has junked a DOJ motion seeking Trillanes’ arrest for a dismissed case of coup d’état but recognized President Rodrigo Duterte’s proclamation to void the amnesty of the opposition senator.
In his verdict, Soriano said that DOJ’s motion was dismissed since the doctrine of finality and executory of judgment should not be disturbed since the case against Trillanes has been closed in 2011.
“Well established is the doctrine that a final and executory judgment shall be immutable,” Soriano said. “The Court, in fact, loses jurisdiction over the case when its decision has become final and executory.”
“The law is vibrant. Jurisprudence is its lifeblood…but for now the Court finds itself powerless to disturb the said doctrine even it had sustained the factual bases for the Proclamation No. 572,” he added.
In deciding the DOJ motion, Soriano has considered Trillanes’ certificate of amnesty, the affidavits of four defense witnesses, and a printed photo of the senator’s application for amnesty.
Makati City RTC Branch 150 has earlier issued arrest warrant and HDO against Trillanes for his rebellion case in the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege. The senator, however, was granted P200,000 bail.
Duterte signed Proclamation No. 572 on August 31 revoking the amnesty granted Trillanes and saying the senator did not comply with the “minimum requirements to qualify under the amnesty proclamation.”
The President also ordered the arrest of Trillanes “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.”
Trillanes, however, has insisted that his amnesty petition went through the right process, based on the parameters set by then amnesty granter former President Benigno Aquino III./PN
