THE Court of Appeals has upheld the ruling of the Makati City regional trial court denying the government’s bid to arrest former senator Antonio Trillanes IV over his revived coup d’état case.
In a May 31 decision but only made public Wednesday, the appellate court’s Special Eleventh Division sustained the 2018 ruling of Makati RTC Branch 148 Judge Andres Soriano in favor of Trillanes.
“In sum, this Court finds no grave abuse of discretion on the part of the public respondent in rendering the assailed orders in this case which would warrant the reversal or the modification thereof,” ponente Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon said in the ruling.
The Office of the Solicitor General has sought the intervention of the CA in the government’s attempt to send Trillanes to jail and claimed that Soriano abused his discretion when he junked the revived coup d’état case.
The OSG argued that the amnesty issued by former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to Trillanes was invalid because Congress concurred in the amnesty for the coup plotters in December 2010 while Trillanes was granted the amnesty only in January 2011.
But the CA said the OSG’s argument was “patently unmeritorious” and ruled that “Congress need not, and did not, concur with the latter,” meaning the specific grant of amnesty to Trillanes was decided on by a committee after he met all conditions set for the grant of amnesty.
“Court cannot comprehend the mental calisthenics entailed by the janus-faced position the petitioner assumed. Why would it invoke the provisions of a proclamation which it would later on claim to be invalid due to being unconstitutional?’ the CA said.
While the CA upheld the constitutionality of Proclamation 572 issued by President Duterte which revoked Trillanes’ amnesty, it gave weight to factual findings of the trial court that Trillanes complied with conditions set under the law for the grant of amnesty, hence, the revocation was not valid.
“Contrary to petitioner’s asseverations, the evidence tends to show that private respondent complied with the (said) conditions by filing his application for amnesty, and admitting his guilt for the crimes enumerated under Proclamation 75,’ the CA said.
“As a result, the charges against private respondent in connection with the offenses ‘forgotten’ or forgiven by the amnesty must be necessarily dropped. In other words, the RTC Order dated September 21,2011 dismissing the coup d’état case against private respondent is valid,” the CA added.
It was the second victory handed by the CA to Trillanes against the government’s bid to jail him after its Sixth Division last March reversed the order of Makati RTC Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda which reopened the rebellion trial of the former senator.
The coup d’état case was in connection with the 2003 Oakwood mutiny when Trillanes, then a Navy junior officer, led more than 300 officers and enlisted personnel to protest against the alleged corruption during the Arroyo administration.
The rebellion case, on the other, was in connection with the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege when he, along with the late Army Gen. Danilo Lim took over the hotel to air their grievances also against the Arroyo administration.
