MANILA – The coup d’état case against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV in relation to the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny is now up for resolution at the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148.
Judge Andres Soriano of the Makati RTC said they will decide on whether to grant the Department of Justice’s request to issue an arrest warrant and a hold departure order (HDO) against Trillanes next week.
The DOJ has made the request after President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 572 that declared void ab initio (from the beginning) the amnesty given to the senator by former president Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino III.
Soriano has considered the DOJ motion submitted for resolution with almost all of the evidence offered by Trillanes except for printouts of the official Facebook page of the Department of National Defense and the senator’s “throwback” picture.
Other pieces of evidence – including Trillanes’ certificate of amnesty, the affidavits of four defense witnesses and a printed photo of the senator’s application for amnesty – were admitted by the court.
Makati City RTC Branch 150 has earlier issued an arrest warrant and an HDO against Trillanes for his rebellion case in the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege. He got arrested but posted bail worth P200,000.
Duterte said Trillanes 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.”
But Trillanes has insisted that his amnesty petition went through the right process./PN
