Senator Antonio Trillanes IV filed Monday before a Pasay court P96,000 bail bond for his temporary liberty over a libel case filed by former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte.
Trillanes, accompanied by his legal counsel, posted the bail before the sala of Pasay City Judge Rowena Nieves Tan, three days after the Davao City Regional Court Branch 54 issued four warrants for his arrest, P24,000 for each of four counts of libel.
Trillanes was scheduled to fly to The Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom from Dec. 11, 2018 to Jan. 12, 2019, and the US from Jan. 27 to Feb. 10, 2019 to meet different groups and attend various activities as part of his official duties.
In a related development, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra ordered the Bureau of Immigration to allow Trillanes to leave the country as long as there is no hold departure order issued by any court against him.
Guevarra made the statement after the Davao City Regional Trial Court required Trillanes to comment within five days on the motion of Department of Justice to issue an HDO against him for libel.
The DOJ sought the issuance of an HDO after the same branch issued four arrest warrants against the senator on December 7 over four counts of libel filed by former Davao City vice mayor and presidential son Paolo Duterte and presidential son-in-law Manases Carpio in September.
Trillanes earlier said he was to turn himself in to authorities but decided to post bail on Monday.
The senator also argued that under the 1987 Constitution he was immune from arrest for offenses punishable by not more than six years imprisonment while Congress is in session.
Trillanes also denounced the warrant of arrest as another attempt to silence him as one of President Rodrigo Duterte’s critics.
The presidential son filed a libel case against Trillanes after the opposition senator accused him of corruption.
Trillanes, in 2017, claimed the younger Duterte and brother-in-law Manases Carpio were involved in a scheme to extort money from ride-hailing firms.
In an affidavit, the younger Duterte accused Trillanes of libel after the latter accused him of corruption and extortion involving ride-hailing services, the Road Board and the Department of Public Works and Highways, in a radio interview with dyAB Cebu’s Leo Lastimosa last Sept. 8, 2017.
According to Duterte, it was in September 2017 when Carpio showed to him a video of Trillanes’ radio interview.
“Watching it, I was aghast to hear the respondent maliciously accusing me and my brother-in-law, Atty. Manases Carpio, of supposed rampant and widespread corruption and extortion. Admittedly, this based on sheer information fed to him, the identity of whom, however, he did not identify nor disclose,” he said in his affidavit. With Joel Zurbano and Rey E. Requejo