NOT today.
Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV gets at least another week as a free man as the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 has deferred the issuance of another warrant for his arrest.
In an order issued Friday, September 28, Judge Andres Soriano directed both the senator and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to present evidence in a hearing set for 9 a.m. of October 5, 2018.
Both parties were asked to present evidence on: whether or not Trillanes filed an application for amnesty; and whether or not he admitted guilt.
Soriano issued the order "without necessarily reopening the case and/or giving due course to the prosecution's Urgent Ex-parte Omnibus Motion."
The senator, who is currently out on bail but is still holed up at his Senate office, faced coup d' etat charges before Branch 148.
Should this court issue a warrant of arrest, there would be no escaping detention for Trillanes because the case is non-bailable.
Trial had been completed and the court had been about to promulgate its decision when then President Benigno Aquino III issued Proclamation 75, granting amnesty to Trillanes and other Magdalo dissident soldiers.
President Rodrigo Duterte, however, issued Proclamation 572 on August 31, declaring the amnesty void and directing the DOJ and the Armed Forces of the Philippines Court Martial to revive the cases against Trillanes.
Another court, the Makati RTC Branch 150, has revived the rebellion case filed against Trillanes and issued a warrant for his arrest on September 25. Trillanes, however, was allowed to post P200,000 bail after his arrest, both on the same day.
Trillanes and other Magdalo soldiers were charged with coup d' etat after they staged the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003. Trillanes was also charged with rebellion over his involvement in the Manila Peninsula Siege in 2007. Both uprisings were staged against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, in a statement Friday, said the decision of the court is "not a problem."
"The DOJ does not have any problem with Judge Soriano's desire to study the issues further. We are already very happy that he took cognizance of our motion, heard the parties, admitted the evidence, and issued the appropriate orders, instead of refusing to act at all," Guevarra said in a statement on Friday, September 28.
Guevarra pointed out that the decision is "extremely significant from a legal and jurisdictional standpoint."
Guevarra also stressed that the arrest warrant and the hold departure order issued by Makati RTC Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda last Tuesday, September 25 have already provided "adequate safeguards" to assure Trillanes' presence in the forthcoming judicial proceedings into his case. (MVI and Keith A. Calayag/SunStar Philippines)