Arroyo refuses to comment on arrest order vs Trillanes

MANILA, Philippines — House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Wednesday remained mum on the arrest order against Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

Asked for her reaction on the order, the former president was quoted by House reporters as saying “no reaction.”

On Tuesday, Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 150 granted the Department of Justice’s motion for an arrest warrant and hold departure order against Trillanes.

This was in relation to the embattled senator’s involvement in coup attempts against the administration of Arroyo in the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.

The warrant of arrest three weeks after President Rodrigo Duterte revoked the amnesty granted to Trillanes by former President Benigno Aquino III through Proclamation 75, which Congress concurred with.

The amnesty proclamation covered active and former police and military personnel and "[extinguished] any criminal liability for acts committed in connection, incident or related to the July 27, 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, the February 2006 Marines Stand-Off and the November 29, 2007 Peninsula Manila Hotel Incident without prejudice to the grantee’s civil liability for injuries or damages caused to private persons."

Duterte claimed that Trillanes "did not comply with the minimum requirements to qualify under the Amnesty Proclamation." He then ordered the police and the military to arrest the senator but the police said they have yet to receive the warrant of arrest.

After the warrant was issued, Trillanes voluntarily surrendered to police and posted bail worth P200,000 before the Makati RTC Branch 150 for his rebellion case that was dismissed in 2011. He returned to the Senate afterward. — Rosette Adel