Duterte argument on Gazmin signing Trillanes amnesty 'foolish', 'an afterthought' —lawyers

The issue over the alleged impropriety of former Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin's signing of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV's amnesty certificate appears to be an "afterthought" that will not fly before the courts, a lawyer said Wednesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte, who nullified Trillanes' amnesty on grounds that his application was invalid, later said the signing of the amnesty itself cannot be done by anyone other than the president, in this case former president Benigno Aquino III.

But Gazmin's signing of the amnesty certificate -- not the proclamation itself, which bore Aquino's signature -- was not included in the original grounds: the absence of a copy of his application and his alleged failure to admit his guilt for the Oakwood Mutiny and the Manila Peninsula Siege.

This is why, when sought for his opinion, National Union of People's Lawyers president Edre Olalia thinks Duterte's new argument, if raised, would fail before the courts.

"All Cabinet Secretaries are alter egos of the president. Hence, unless countermanded or revoked by the latter, they are presumed valid and are acts of their principal," Olalia said.

"Besides, the validity (or absurdity) of a subsequent proclamation revoking an amnesty should only be measured by the grounds or premises of the revoking proclamation itself."

"That Gazmin pinpointing is an extraneous matter or evidence aliunde to the revoking proclamation and apparently is an afterthought, if not flimsy scapegoating," he explained.

Proclamation No. 75, the presidential order that granted amnesty to those involved in the Oakwood Mutiny, the Marines Stand-off, and the Manila Peninsula Siege, including former Navy officer Trillanes, was signed by Aquino.

But it assigned the receipt and processing of the amnesty applications to an ad hoc committee of the Department of National Defense (DND). The department's "final decisions or determination" were made appealable to the Office of the President.

Likewise sought for his interpretation, constitutional law expert Antonio La Viña agrees that department secretaries are the president's alter egos, whose acts "are the acts of the president" unless their authority is withdrawn.

In Trillanes' case, he said Aquino "validly delegated" the approval of applications to the designated official, in this case Gazmin, who headed the DND during the Aquino administration.

"That's normal. That's called qualified political agency," La Viña said in a text message. He explained that the Cabinet members' agency is "qualified" because the president can also choose to exercise the power himself.

"There are also powers he cannot delegate, like proclaiming martial law and an amnesty. But in the case of the latter, the processing of applications can clearly be delegated," he said.

While the Constitution vests executive power in the president, La Viña asked: "Does that mean he alone has that power and every government document must have his signature? No. That is foolish and would make the presidency an even more impossible job than it already is."

Olalia then warned of the potential consequence of the government's way of reasoning on Trillanes' amnesty case on all other amnesty recipients.

"To countenance the fickle-minded inconsistent reasoning for the revocation of Trillanes amnesty undermines all previous and future grants to any amnestied person or group," he said. —JST, GMA News