(Eagle News) — Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said that he had been assured by the Senate leadership that no arrests will be made while he is inside the Senate premises, as he was placed “under the custody” of Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III.
“Basically I was placed in the custody of the Senate President until my lawyers file the necessary petition in the Supreme Court,” he told reporters shortly after emerging from a meeting of the senators with Senate President Sotto.
Trillanes claimed that he was assured by Sotto that “he will not allow any arrest” while he is inside the Senate premises.
“Nakulong naman ako before.. It is something na hindi ko aatrasan. What I am questioning is the principle behind it. So we need to fight this warrantless arrest na ito,” he said.
Senate Minority leader Franklin Drilon insisted that the criminal charges filed against Trillanes had already been terminated when he had been granted amnesty in 2010, and that there would be “double jeopardy” if the trial on his cases will be continued.
“Meron na pong double jeopardy,” he said.
He claimed that amnesty cannot be revoked since it is already a “completed act.”
“The Senate is taking custody of Senator Trillanes. He is a senator and under the Constitution he cannot be arrested while Congress is in session,” Drilon said as he cited that the particular exemption is for cases committed with a penalty of prision mayor or at least six years imprisonment.
“In this particular case, there is even no case. With more reason that the constitutional protection will apply,” he added.
Trillanes branded the current actions of President Rodrigo Duterte as a “dictatorship” and that if he would be arrested, it would be illegal.
“This is a warrantless arrest. Maliwang yan. In this case walang warrant. (This is clear. In this case, there is no warrant. Anong kaso mo? (What is your case?),” he said.
Trillanes further branded Duterte as a “coward” for signing the proclamation voiding his amnesty before he left for his four-day visit to Israel.
He described the Duterte government as a “de facto martial law of the 70s kind” and that the President is “persecuting the political opposition.”
Proclamation 572 declared as “void ab initio” the amnesty granted by former President Benigno Aquino III to Trillanes in October 2010 for his alleged failure to comply with the “minimum requirements” for amnesty.
Because of this, his amnesty is considered “void from the start” as Trillanes has no record of any admission of guilt for the non-bailable crime of coup d’etat during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
The penalty for coup d’etat is reclusion perpetua or life imprisonment.
Earlier, Trillanes claimed he will not resist arrest and is ready to face the charges against him for the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege during the Arroyo presidency.
(Eagle News Service)
