By Vann Marlo M. Villegas
THERE’S STILL no order form Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 on the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) motion to issue an arrest warrant and hold departure order (HDO) against Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV.
But according to Makati Chief of Police S/Supt. Rogelio Simon, Judge Andres B. Soriano is at the “last stage of his work.”
Mr. Simon told reporters that Mr. Soriano “personally told me again (that) for today, wala rin, walang lalabas (nothing will come out). He is at the last stage of his work or his assignment, ‘yung homework niya na ginagawa (the homework he is doing).”
Mr. Soriano has admitted Mr. Trillanes’s evidence and is set to release a resolution on the motion of the DoJ for the issuance or an arrest warrant and travel ban against Mr. Trillanes for his non-bailable coup d’etat case in connection with the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trillanes IV has asked the Makati RTC Branch 150 to reverse its order issuing his arrest warrant and HDO and appealed “to the sense of justice” of the court to grant his motion for reception of evidence.
In his reply to the opposition of the DoJ to his motion for reception of evidence, he said that if the motion is granted, he “will show and prove that he has fully and properly complied with the requirements for the valid grant to him of amnesty.”
“It is respectfully submitted that it is the least the Honorable Court could do before it gives its final blessing to the re-opening of this case, a case which has been dead for nearly seven years, the revival of which case would inevitably result to a long-drawn trial for a capital offense for which herein former Accused can be possibly incarcerated for a very long time,” he stated.
Mr. Trillanes’s coup d’etat case and his rebellion case in connection with the 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege were dismissed in 2011 following the grant of amnesty by former president Benigno S.C. Aquino III.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte, however, through Proclamation No. 572, voided the Senator’s amnesty after alleging that he did not file his application form and admitted his guilt.
He also stated that the prosecution’s witness, Lt. Col. Thea Joan N. Andrade, did not say in her certification that Mr. Trillanes “did not apply for amnesty.”
“The fact is that the said certification in fact affirmed the fact that former Accused Trillanes was granted amnesty under and pursuant to Proclamation No. 75 Series of 2010. The only thing stated in the subject certification is that ‘there is no available copy of his application for amnesty in the records,’” he stated.
Judge Elmo M. Alameda of Makati RTC Branch 150 has granted the motion of the DoJ to issue an arrest warrant and travel ban against Mr. Trillanes for his rebellion case over the 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege last Sept. 25. He posted a P200,000 bail on the same day.
Mr. Trillanes also cited the cross examination of Ms. Andrade held at Branch 148 where he claimed she admitted that “it was never her intention to certify or claim that the former did not apply for amnesty.”
“What is clear from the foregoing that the Prosecution has utterly failed to produce even a single witness who categorically claimed or asserted that former Accused Trillanes did not file his amnesty application. The entire claim and argument of the Proclamation and the Prosecution is based entirely on false and baseless insinuation,” he stated.
He also said the DoJ failed to present convincing evidence that he did not admit guilt as it is only based on the Prosecution’s “strained and/or twisted” interpretation of what he said in a news report.
“Under existing jurisprudence, the contents and assertions in newspaper articles are considered not only ‘hearsay’ but ‘double hearsay,’ which cannot be relied upon by representative of the truth,” he stated.

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