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‘No records’ of proceedings on amnesty applications — DND exec


A Department of Defense (DND) official on Friday claimed he found “no records” of proceedings relating to the amnesty applications of former mutineers, including Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Lawyer Norman Daanoy, DND legal affairs chief, told the Makati Regional Trial Court’s Branch 148 that his Department of Justice-requested inquiry on the said papers yielded “no records at all.”

“There are no records of any documents pertaining to proceeding, deliberations, minutes... of the amnesty applications pursuant to the implementation of Proclamation No. 75,” Daanoy said during the hearing.

Proclamation No. 75 is the directive by former president Benigno Aquino III that granted amnesty to former and active military and police personnel who may have committed offenses in connection with the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, the 2006 Marines Stand-Off, and the 2007 Manila Peninsula Siege.

Judge Andres Soriano had called for a hearing to receive evidence from the Trillanes camp and the government on whether or not the senator complied with the requirements for amnesty.

This is the second hearing he is conducting on the DOJ’s motion seeking an arrest warrant and a hold departure against Trillanes.

Under cross-examination, however, Daanoy admitted he limited his search inside the DND proper, and did not ask the members of the Defense ad hoc committee which was tasked to process amnesty applications.

The members, he said, are no longer in the DND.

The prosecution also presented Arlene Manjares, the records chief of the administrative services office of the DND.

She testified that there were no records of amnesty application forms in her office.

By noon, the prosecution had completed its presentation of five witness, all of whom were subject to cross-examination by Trillanes’ laywer, Reynaldo Robles.

Also presented as prosecution witnesses were Lieutenant Colonel Thea Joan Andrade from the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel (J1); Mark Merueñas, current news editor and former reporter of GMA News Online; Maria Rhodora Malabag-Peralta, the clerk of court of Branch 148.

The hearing was suspended at noon and will resume at 1:30 p.m with the direct and cross-examination of defense witnesses. — RSJ, GMA News

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