DOJ to Trillanes: Fight not over yet

File Photo
File Photo

JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday, October 22, said the decision of the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) is not yet final.

"This is just the beginning. This is not the end. Nobody has to claim total victory here, umpisa pa lang ito (this is just the beginning)," he said in a press conference a few hours after Makati RTC Branch 148 Judge Andres Soriano denied the DOJ motion for the issuance of an arrest warrant and hold departure order against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Guevarra said they have yet to determine their next course of action.

"There are a number of options available to us. (We are) still studying the best," he said in a text message after the press conference.

Guevarra said he thinks that Makati RTC Branch 148 Judge Andres Bartolome Soriano "made that ruling because he has no jurisprudence to go by.”

"It’s not always the case that you must back up your arguments with decided cases because there will always be a first time wherein new and novel issues will be presented to the Supreme Court,” he explained.

Asked how he would reconcile the decision of Soriano which contradicted the claims of the prosecution but at the same time upheld the validity of Proclamation No. 572, Guevarra said: "I think he should be the one to reconcile his own ruling but we're happy to find out that he is saying na there's nothing unconstitutional or invalid about Proclamation No. 572 because that was in the exercise by the President of his power of control and supervision over the executive department."

Soriano, in a decision released on October 22, junked the urgent motion of the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the issuance of an arrest warrant and hold departure order against Trillanes.

In the same resolution, Soriano upheld the legality of Proclamation 572, which declared as void ab initio the amnesty granted to Trillanes.

The proclamation, signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on August 31, 2018 but made public on September 4, 2018, directed the courts and the Armed Forces of the Philippines Court Martial to revive the dismissed cases of coup d'etat and rebellion against Trillanes.

The Makati RTC Branch 150 revived the rebellion case and issued an arrest warrant and hold departure order against Trillanes on September 25.

The senator was, however, allowed to post P200,000 bail on the same day.

The senator, a former Navy officer, was charged with coup d' etat and rebellion over his involvement in the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003 and the Manila Peninsula Siege in 2007.

Both uprisings were staged by dissident soldiers from the Magdalo Group against the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo administration.

Trillanes and about 30 other soldiers were granted amnesty during the Benigno Aquino III administration and their cases dismissed.

That amnesty was declared void ab initio by Proclamation 572. (SunStar Philippines)

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