‘Don’t follow illegal orders,’ Trillanes ally tells military, police
MAGDALO party-list Rep. Gary Alejano told the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to disobey “illegal orders” from President Rodrigo Duterte to arrest party-mate Senator Antonio Trillanes 4th.
“The proclamation issued by Duterte has no basis at all. There is no warrant of arrest and there are no charges to begin with. Therefore, the order to the AFP and PNP to apprehend Senator Trillanes is an illegal one,” Alejano said in a statement.
He added that “the AFP and PNP are not private armies” of Duterte, but rather “the army of and for the Filipino people.”
Alejano, a staunch critic of the President, noted that the revocation of Trillanes’ amnesty was “a clear political persecution,” as it lacked basis.
“It was clearly a political persecution because of what happened with Senator Leila de Lima, Chief Justice [Maria Lourdes] Sereno…we are expecting that this administration will still believe in democracy,” he previously told House reporters in an ambush interview.
Trillanes was granted amnesty for leading the Oakwood mutiny and the Manila Peninsula siege against then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Alejano was also among the leaders who staged the Oakwood incident in 2003 with Trillanes who was Navy lieutenant at the time.
Trillanes, Alejano, and other Magdalo leaders availed of the amnesty by virtue of Proclamation 75 from then President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd on November 2010.
Duterte signed Proclamation 572 declaring Trillanes’ amnesty void on August 31. A copy of the proclamation was published in Tuesday’s issue of The Manila Times.
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