Malacañang hails Makati court’s ruling on Trillanes’s rebellion case

FILE: Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV (Photo: Senate of the Philippines/Facebook)

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo lauded the decision of a Makati court that junked Senator Antonio “Sonny” Trillanes IV’s appeal to dismiss the rebellion case lodged against him in connection to his involvement in the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.

“While currently at liberty after posting bail, Senator Trillanes must still come to grips with the criminal transgressions he committed as an ingrate and renegade military officer,” Panelo said on Tuesday, January 8.

“He may have succeeded in evading his accountability before the law but the law is now catching up on him,” he added.

In an order dated December 18, 2018 but was only made public on Monday, January 7, Judge Elmo Alameda of Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 150 did not reverse his September 25 decision to have the opposition senator arrested.

Alameda ruled that Trillanes “failed to prove” that he indeed submitted an application form for his amnesty.

“Since the existence of the duly accomplished application form for amnesty has never been established nor the fact of his admission of guilt of the crime he committed, the substitutionary evidence presented by Sen. Trillanes is considered hearsay evidence and cannot be admitted as evidence to prove compliance with the minimum requirements set forth in Proclamation No. 75,” the decision read.

To recall, President Rodrigo Duterte revoked the amnesty granted to Trillanes by the administration of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. Duterte, through Proclamation No. 572 that he signed in August, declared the grant of amnesty to Trillanes is declared “void ab initio” as he failed to comply with the minimum requirements to qualify under the Amnesty Program.

In his statement, Panelo said Trillanes’s “comeuppance” is “finally knocking at his door,” adding that the only person the senator can blame for his predicament is himself.

The spokesperson also gave warning to government officials, saying that what is happening to Trillanes “should strike fear in the hearts of those who after being financed by the taxpayers’ money for their education will plot against the government that nurtured them as well as those who use their political power to shield them from accountability as they malign and sow intrigues against persons they dislike even inciting the citizenry to hate duly constituted authorities.”

Trillanes obtained temporary liberty after he posted bail amounting to P200,000 on the same day Alameda ordered the solon’s arrest.

While the Makati RTC Branch 150 denied the senator’s appeal, the Makati RTC Branch 148, on the other hand, earlier junked the motion by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to issue an arrest warrant and hold departure order (HDO) against Trillanes for coup d’etat charges over the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny.