SOLICITOR General Jose Calida warned Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that he will file a libel charge against the latter if the opposition lawmaker will not apologize for calling him a thief.
Calida, in a statement Thursday, September 27, denied that he had stolen the amnesty application filed by Trillanes before the Department of National Defense (DND).
"The putschist Mr. Trillanes ranted to the media yesterday that I 'stole' his amnesty application document. In effect, Mr. Trillanes maliciously branded me as a thief, which I’m not," Calida said.
"Unless Mr. Trillanes expresses his sincere apology for calling me a thief, I shall be constrained to file a criminal case for libel plus damages against him," he added.
Trillanes said in a press conference on Wednesday, September 26, that Calida stole his amnesty application form.
The DND earlier issued a certification, saying there is no available copy of Trillanes's amnesty application upon the request of the solicitor general himself.
The missing application form is the basis of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 to order Trillanes's arrest last Tuesday, September 24, pursuant to the proclamation issued by President Rodrigo Duterte that declared the senator's amnesty void from the start.
Calida said it was Lieutenant Colonel Thea Joan Andrade, chief of the Discipline, Law and Order Division of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (J1) and custodian of the records that issued a certification, who said that there is no available copy of Trillanes’s amnesty application.
"I have never entered the offices of the J1 or the Personnel Division of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) at Camp Aguinaldo so how could I 'steal' documents kept there?" Calida said.
Trillanes accused Calida of being behind his amnesty revocation.
The news about the cancellation of Trillanes's amnesty broke just before the senator begins the investigation on the multi-million peso contracts of the security firm owned by the solicitor general and his family. (SunStar Philippines)