Trillanes finally comes home

FILE: ARRESTED. Senator Antonio Trillanes IV (2nd from right) submits himself to police officers, led by National Capital Region Police Office chief, Director Guillermo Eleazar (3rd from right), at the Senate premises on Tuesday (Sept. 25, 2018). Trillanes proceeded to Makati Police headquarters for booking process and posting of PHP200,000 bail for a rebellion case. (PNA photo by Avito C. Dalan)

After staying at the Senate premises for more than three weeks, Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV finally decided to come back home on Saturday, September 29.

“For now, magpapahinga ako (I will rest) and I’ll try to be with my family. We’ll see within the next few days, I’ll visit my mother who is confined right now,” Trillanes told reporters before he left the Senate building.

To recall, the senator has been staying at his Senate office since September 4, after President Rodrigo Duterte made public his Proclamation No. 572 that revoked the amnesty granted to Trillanes by the previous administration. The proclamation ordered Trillanes to be arrested as the latter allegedly failed to comply with the amnesty requirements and did not admit his guilt over the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny and 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.

Trillanes’s decision to leave the upper chamber building came after the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 deferred issuing a warrant of arrest and hold departure order (HDO) against him on the grounds of coup d’etat in connection with the 2003 Oakwood mutiny. The court set the next hearing on October 5, Friday, at 9 a.m.

[READ: Makati RTC Branch 148 defers ruling on DOJ’s plea vs. Trillanes]

“There is always a silver lining to every dark cloud and this is just one of them that we have seen that we have felt that in the past few weeks and we welcome that as a blessing from the man upstairs,” the senator said.

According to Trillanes, he will go back to work on Monday and will discuss to his fellow lawmakers his pending resolutions on alleged anomalies of the Duterte administration.

“Ako ay makikiusap sa liderato ng iba’t-ibang mga committee na may pending resolutions kami for investigations ng mga anomalya nitong administrasyon na ‘to — ‘yung mga corruption allegations kay [Solicitor General Jose] Calida, corruption allegations kay [Special Assistant to the President Christopher] Bong Go, at ‘yung involvement sa illegal drugs ni Duterte mismo. ‘Yan ‘yung tututukan natin (I will talk to the leaders of various committees where we have pending resolutions for investigations on the anomalies of the current administration — the corruption allegations against Calida, corruption allegations against Bong Go, and Duterte’s involvement in illegal drugs. We are going to focus on those issues),” he said.

Trillanes left the Senate premises at around 10 a.m. boarding a white van.

The Makati RTC Branch 150, which handles Trillanes’s rebellion case over the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege, earlier ordered the former mutineer’s arrest and barred him from leaving the country.

However, the court still allowed Trillanes to post bail amounting to P200,000 for his temporary liberty, to which Trillanes had already complied with.