MANILA, Philippines — There is no more legal impediment for the implementation of Presidential Order No. 572 that voids the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV during the previous administration, presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said yesterday.
In a statement, Roque said this goes to show that President Duterte respects the decision of the judiciary.
“The court has spoken… Whatever Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has to say can be addressed to the court,” he said.
“Let us stop the drama by (conducting) press conferences and allow the legal proess to take its course,” he said.
In another interview, Roque said the Makati regional trial court (RTC) can now proceed with the trial and find out whether Trillanes should be held liable for the rebellion charges filed against him.
“At this point, the military tribunal would be superfluous because the law provides that where you have concurrent jurisdiction over the civilian courts and the military courts… here you have a determination by the solicitor general, and actually, by the President, that he would defer to the court,” he said.
“That means the matter now is entirely on the regional trial court,” Roque said.
It is up to the senator to appeal the decision of the local court, according to Roque.
“He can still appeal the decision of the RTC on the issue. He can bring this up to the appellate court. Meanwhile, he has to honor the decision of the court unless he gets a restraining order of the Supreme Court (SC) or the Court of Appeals,” he said, before the senator surrendered.
“Right now, the warrant of arrest is immediately executory and he should respect our court and voluntarily surrender and face the charges against him,” he added.
Since Duterte has deferred to the Makati RTC, Roque said Malacañang is hoping that Trillanes will equally respect the court and voluntarily surrender so that he may prove his innocence of the charges leveled against him.
Will Trillanes suffer the same fate as that of detained Sen. Leila de Lima in seeking relief from the SC against Duterte’s Proclamation No. 572 that voided the amnesty he obtained during the previous administration?
A document submitted to the SC yesterday showed that Trillanes falsified the notarization of his petition earlier this month seeking to strike down the proclamation for alleged violations of the 1987 Constitution. – With Edu Punay