Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word amnesty as “intentional forgetfulness.” In legalese, it means official pardon for prisoners of conscience.
Amnesty was first used in 1580 by the Greeks from whom most of the world’s present and prevailing laws had its origin. In medical terms it’s called amnesia and in more severe form as Alzheimer disease.
It seems that these days, there is a widespread affliction of amnesia. To wit: The Department of Defense and the Department of Justice cannot recall whether the missing document of former coup plotter Navy Lt. Antonio Trillanes IV is wherein he applied for amnesty. Trillanes, now a senator of the Republic, showed reporters his amnesty certificate granted him by then President Benigno Aquino III.
Authorities could not show this certificate of amnesty which Trillanes showed Senate reporters. Did they forget where their copy of the certificate is? Then, the arresting team of soldiers, sent to arrest Senator Trillanes, forgot to bring an arrest warrant making their mission a flawed warrantless arrest. The legal experts in Malacanang must have forgotten their law that any arrest to be served must be accompanied with a warrant issued by the court.
The authorities who dispatched the soldiers to arrest the senator must have also forgotten that a senator cannot be arrested while the Senate is in session. Even if it is not in session, the soldiers cannot touch Trillanes while he’s within the premises of the Senate. Senate President Tito Sotto and the rest of the senators closed ranks and took Trillanes into Senate custody instead.
He will remain in the Senate until he exhausts all legal remedies to nullify President Rodrigo Duterte’s proclamation revoking the amnesty.
The whole cause célèbre now rests in the hands of Makati Judge Andres Soriano who will decide on three essential and fundamental issues. The primary issue is can one man, the President in this case, revoke an amnesty or official pardon granted by a former President and concurred in by Congress? Secondly, as Trillanes contends, he cannot be tried by court martial as he has been a civilian since he ran and won as senator. The third issue is whether Trillanes can be seized without an arrest warrant issued by the proper court.
Judge Soriano has been thrust into the legal limelight. It will be up to him whether he will allow himself to be co-opted or stand up for judicial independence. Before the case was raffled off to him, the judge was little known and was obscured by his more famous namesake, businessman Andres Soriano.
Trillanes it will be recalled, staged a mutiny against then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He and his rebel band took over the Oakwood Hotel where they holed out for several days. Trillanes and the mutineers finally surrendered and detained. The Oakwood Hotel in Makati after the incident had to change its name to Ascot Hotel to erase the bad image arising from the Trillanes takeover.
Magdalo Party-List Rep. Gary Alejano, another Duterte arch critic and brother in arms of Trillanes in the coup attempt against Arroyo. Will his amnesty or pardon also be revoked? To show his esprit d’corps with Trillanes, Alejano spent the night with the beleaguered senator at Trillanes’ office.
Two other former mutineers—Nicanor Faeldon and Danilo Lim—are serving under the Duterte administration. Lim is Metro Manila Development Authority chairman while Faeldon, a former Customs Commissioner, is now deputy director of a proposed National Disaster Management Council.
Not being a lawyer, although I have enough grasp of the law having covered court cases, I still will not give my own opinion on the Trillanes case. I could have written about it on the day the news broke but I refrained from doing so as I wanted to hear all the views of the parties concerned.
First, the government stand. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, Presidential Legal Assistant Salvador Panelo and Solicitor General Jose Calida are of course on the same page that a warrantless arrest is legal. They say the amnesty granted by former President Noynoy Aquino was null and void from the start because Trillanes did not apply for amnesty—and therefore, it is void ab initio and flawed. This was the same argument that Solgen Calida used in ousting then Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno via quo warrant proceedings.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan defended Trillanes, calling the amnesty revocation by the President a brazen attempt to silence critics. Drilon stressed that if Trillanes has a copy of his certificate of amnesty, then it can only mean Trillanes applied for amnesty and it was granted.
These are indeed interesting times for the country. Interesting, but also scary for many Filipinos scary, according to Alejano who claims this is an undeclared form of martial law. His words, not mine.
Incidentally, where does Amnesty International stand in this case?