THE Department of Justice on Friday objected to the appeal of opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 150 to recall its order for his arrest, in connection with the DoJ’s move to revive the coup d’état and rebellion cases against him.
In an 11-page comment, the DoJ state prosecutors asked the Makati City RTC to dismiss the motion for reconsideration filed by Trillanes for lack of merit.
Trillanes’ lawyer did not oppose the DoJ’s filing of the comment, but manifested that it was filed out of time or 11 days after the appeal itself was filed on Oct. 1.
Nonetheless, the court gave Trillanes’ camp up to five days to file its reply to the comment, while the prosecution was given five days, within which to file its rejoinder.
Judge Elmo Alameda, the presiding judge of Branch 150, earlier ordered the arrest of Trillanes, in connection with previously dismissed rebellion charges in late September, but allowed him to post bail.
This prompted Trillanes to file a motion for reconsideration seeking to vacate and set aside the order for his arrest for being “premature” and for lacking factual and legal basis.
The senator also asked the court to set the DoJ’s motion seeking his arrest for hearing for the reception of testimonial evidence and to ultimately deny the government motion.
However, Assistant State Prosecutor Josie Christina Dugay argued there was no need for a hearing on the reception of evidence.
In its 11-page comment, the DOJ stressed there was no basis for Trillanes to request to set the case for reception of evidence on the factual issues.
The DoJ insisted the Makati City court had already ruled in favor of Duterte’s Proclamation No. 572 “after both parties were able to present their evidence.”
“Further, the issues/grounds raised by the accused in their motion for reconsideration were comprehensively and correctly ruled upon by the Honorable Court,” the DoJ said.
It cited Alameda’s finding that Trillanes “failed to substantiate” his claim that he applied for amnesty due to his failure to present a copy of his application form.
“As correctly held by this Honorable Court, the best evidence to prove that accused Trillanes filed his application for amnesty is the duly fill-up application form itself, its duplicate or photocopy,” the DoJ comment stated.
Without this document and given a “negative certification” from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, “there is no application to speak of, and its existence is suspect,” the DoJ pointed out.
It also cited portions of the transcript of a hearing at the Makati RTC Branch 148, which handled the coup d’état case against Trillanes, that was held last week.
It said the judge set the original motion for hearing even before the Supreme Court referred the factual issues of the case to the RTCs.
The DoJ sought the revival of coup d’état and rebellion cases against Trillanes after Duterte nullified the amnesty granted to him by then President Benigno Aquino III.
These criminal cases, which were in relation with the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege, were dismissed in 2011 after Trillanes was amnestied.
The court which handled the coup d’état case has not yet ruled on the DoJ’s motion for an arrest warrant and a hold departure order against the senator.
Meanwhile, Judge Andres Soriano of Makati City RTC Branch 148 has submitted for resolution the DoJ’s motion seeking the issuance of warrant of arrest and hold departure order against Trillanes.
In a four-page order dated Oct. 11, Soriano admitted all of the evidence Trillanes offered except printouts of the official Facebook page of the Department of National Defense and a “throwback picture” of his, since these were not duly authenticated and never identified by defense witnesses in court.
The rest of the evidence, which includes Trillanes’ certificate of amnesty, the affidavits of four defense witnesses, and a printed photo of the senator’s application for amnesty, were admitted, but noting the objection raised by DoJ prosecutors.
The order comes a week after Soriano heard testimonies from both prosecution and defense witnesses during a full day’s hearing, where it became apparent that while there were persons who supported Trillanes’ claim that he applied for amnesty and admitted his guilt, the corresponding official records remain missing.
Soriano had set the motion for hearing instead of immediately granting or rejecting the government request for the issuance of an arrest warrant and a hold departure order against Trillanes.
Branch 148, which then had a different presiding judge, dismissed the coup d’état case in connection with the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny in 2011, after the senator was amnestied.