SCROLLING DOWN: how opposing camps view the Supreme Court's rejection of Trillanes's petition for a TRO; the Duterte-Panelo chat dissed as "madramang zarzuela"; the chief legal counsel compared to entertainer Boy Abunda.
BUT FIRST, on the rumor that some police officers might go ahead and arrest Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on the basis of President Rodrigo Duterte's proclamation ordering the military and the police to seize the senator.
PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde said, "No police officer in his right mind would do that."
While Duterte vowed not to arrest Trillanes until the court issues an arrest order, he has not instructed the PNP to pull out its troops from the Senate. Which prevails: his written or oral order?
The assurance of "no arrest yet" goes with the threat that Trillanes could be arrested anytime.
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From both sides now
How can the Supreme Court decision shunning the Senator Antonio Trillanes IV petition on his revoked amnesty be seen differently from both sides in the controversy?
* MalacaƱang, through President Duterte's spokesperson Harry Roque, says the ruling defeated Trillanes: now there's "no legal impediment" to arrest him; DOJ's Medardo Guevarra called it a victory.
* Trillanes says he got what he wanted; the president order was rescinded and the SC recognized Duterte's "public commitment." An opposition congressman says that at least the SC didn't totally back Duterte; it just gave him a chance to save face.
Both are right although Roque's reasoning sounds convoluted unless he sees the SC recognition of Duterte's vow as non-binding and the Palace doesn't have the intention to keep it.
Are the president's hands tied by the SC ruling? Not legally and technically because it is not a TRO but morally and in the interest of fairness and justice, he is bound to keep his word. Why? The SC shunned the case and referred the petition to the Regional Trial Courts precisely because of Duterte's promise.
That tete-a-tete
People are talking about:
* The Duterte-Panelo tete-a-tete, that intimate private conversation between the president and his chief legal counsel Tuesday (September 11), which replaced the earlier-announced Digong's talk with the nation and a press-con.
The tete-a-tete (tata-te) was panned as "madramang zarzuela" by actress and Duterte critic Leah Navarro who compared it to then president Ferdinand Marcos's 1985 interview with US news anchor David Brinkley. Not quite because Panelo neither had the journalist's skill nor the guts to make the chat a "gotcha" session. And Brinkley prodded and pinned Marcos to announce the snap elections which led to the dictator's downfall the following year.
* Whether Duterte mentioned Trillane's name more than a 100 times in that chat.
Could be an exaggeration. Besides, who keeps count? Whatever the precise number, it must have a lot as it led to the teasing that Digong must be obsessed with the senator. "Would he be stalking him?" Maybe but to land him in a jail cell, not in a dating room.
* Panelo being compared to entertainer Boy Abunda.
Poor Boy Abunda.
Trillanes, Sereno
Ousted SC Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno visited Trillanes at the Senate. News reports didn't say what they talked about, except that from the photo released to media, they had lunch together. Which required lunch talk. That must include, something like this:
Sereno: "The Supreme Court screwed you yet?"
Trillanes: "No... not yet."
Sereno: "It will. You'll get what I got."
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