PRESIDENT Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to review the coup charges against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV in connection with the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny.
Aquino said there was “injustice” in the case of Trillanes since the elements of coup were not present for the senator to be charged.
“When you review the Revised Penal Code, there is a provision that says coup is committed if there is a swift, violent attack and it has an enumeration. The enumeration does not include hotel,” Aquino said in ambush interview Friday at the inauguration of a Philippine National Police school at Subic Freeport Zone in Zambales.
He stressed that the prosecutor who handled the case should not have let it prosper because there are several requirements lacking for the case.
“I think there was injustice there,” he reiterated, leaving the case to Justice Secretary Leila De Lima.
Trillanes is facing a separate charge of rebellion over The Peninsular Manila hotel standoff in 2007 seeking for the ouster of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
On Thursday, he posted bail asking the court to allow him to attend the resumption of Congress session on July 26.
Trillanes, along with other soldiers, took control over the Oakwood towers in Makati City on July 27, 2003 as protest for alleged corruption in Arroyo administration.
In 2007 elections, Trillanes won a seat in Senate but has not been allowed to participate in sessions due to security reasons. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)