Palace: Law now ‘catching up’ on Trillanes
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2019 04:58:28 +0000
THE law is “catching up” on Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th after a Makati court upheld its decision to issue an arrest warrant against the lawmaker, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
In a statement, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said the government respected the court’s decision rejecting Trillanes’ motion for reconsideration, but added that the “ingrate” rebel soldier must face his criminal offense.
“The Palace respects this decision of the trial court in finding sufficient grounds to deny Senator Trillanes’ motion for reconsideration,” Panelo told reporters.
“While currently at liberty after posting bail, Senator Trillanes must still come to grips with the criminal transgressions he committed as an ingrate and renegade military officer. He may have succeeded in evading his accountability before the law but the law is now catching up on him,” he added.
Panelo made the statement after Makati regional trial court has denied a motion for reconsideration filed by Trillanes on his arrest order in relation to a revived rebellion case arising from the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.
Branch 150 Judge Elmo Alameda, who ordered Trillanes arrested in September last year, said the senator failed to prove the existence of an “original” application for amnesty and to explain his failure to produce it.
“Since the existence of the duly accomplished application form for amnesty has never been established nor the fact of his admission of guilt of the crime he committed… the substitutionary evidence he presented is considered hearsay evidence and cannot be admitted,” Alameda said in his order which was released on Monday.
“In view of all the foregoing, the Omnibus Motion is denied,” he added.
Back in August, President Rodrigo Duterte revoked the amnesty granted to Trillanes by the previous administration in connection with the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 hotel siege.
Panelo said Trillanes and others prone to challenge the majesty of the law that “it is no respecter of anyone regardless of the political and social status of the violator.”
“Senator Trillanes’ comeuppance is finally knocking at his door, and he can only blame himself for the situation he embroiled himself in for he created his own quagmire,” the Palace official said.
“What’s happening to him should strike fear in the hearts of those who after being financed by the taxpayers’ money for their education will plot against the government that nurtured them as well as those who use their political power to shield them from accountability as they malign and sow intrigues against persons they dislike even inciting the citizenry to hate duly constituted authorities,” he added. CATHERINE VALENTE
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