Trillanes placed under custody of Senate President

 

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV has been placed under the custody of Senate President Vicente Sotto III after President Rodrigo Duterte voided his amnesty and ordered his arrest.

Trillanes, a former Navy officer who participated in military uprising during the Arroyo administration, said this was the decision made after a meeting with Sotto and Minority Leader Franklin Drilon.

"Kakakausap lang namin kay Senator Sotto. I was placed in the custody of the Senate President," he said in a press conference.

Trillanes said his lawyers will file the necessary petition before the Supreme Court against Duterte's Proclamation 572, which states that the amnesty extended to him was void from the start because he did not comply with the "minimum requirements to qualify under the amnesty proclamation."

While under custody, Trillanes will remain at the premises of the Senate.

Sotto said he made the decision to take Senator Antonio Trillanes IV into custody to preserve the dignity of the Senate.

“I have consulted with some members of the Senate already, to preserve the dignity of the Senate, we have to not allow any senator to be arrested in the Senate premises. Outside the Senate premises, that’s no longer our concern but within the Senate premises that’s the decision of the leadership,” Sotto told reporters before the session.

He confirmed that Trillanes may stay at the Senate but the senators would have a caucus to discuss certain limitations.

“Hindi ko pa masabi (kung ano ang limitations). Tignan natin kung ano ang sasabihin ng ibang senador because there are other perspective syempre from those who have experienced the same and those who have not experience the same and looking at it at a different perspective,” Sotto said.

The caucus is on-going as of posting time.

Sotto said he gave specific instruction to Sergeant-at-Arms Jose Balajadia not to allow the arrest Trillanes at the Senate premises.

“I have  given instructions to the Sergeant-at-Arms that based on the tradition in the Senate, and to preserve the dignity of the Senate. We cannot allow a senator to be arrested in the premises,” Sotto said.

He said he expected the Philippine National Police to respect the Senate as an institution.

No warrant

Trillanes said the arresting officers do not have with them an arrest warrant.

Asked if he believed the order to arrest Trillanes was justified, Sotto said he would let the courts decide the matter.

"I’d rather be neutral in that perspective. Who am I to judge whether there is legal basis or not?” Sotto said.

Sotto doesn't think that the order to arrest Trillanes is an attack against the Senate.

“Not at all. I don’t think so. Merong  prerogative ang executive , merong prerogative ang legislative, we are just exercising our prerogatives. The President is exercising his prerogative, the Senate  is also exercising its prerogative,” Sotto said.

Trillanes and the other Magdalo soldiers were able to avail of amnesty by virtue of Proclamation 75, issued in November 2010 by then-President Benigno Aquino III. They filed their amnesty application before the Department of National Defense on January 5, 2011.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a Makati court to issue an alias warrant of arrest against Trillanes following Duterte's proclamation.

State prosecutors afternoon filed a very urgent ex-parte omnibus motion for the issuance of a hold departure order — which would bar the senator from leaving the country — and an alias warrant of arrest against him.

Acting Armed Forces chief of staff Lieutenant General Salvador Mison has also ordered the formation of a new general court martial that will hear the charges against Trillanes.

According to AFP spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo, Duterte's revocation returns the senator back to the folds of the military. —KBK/JST, GMA News