A Makati judge issued a warrant of arrest Tuesday against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who on the same day ended his three-week campout at the Senate, surrendered, had himself booked, and then posted a P200,000 bail.
Trillanes, jailed for his attempts to overthrow the Arroyo administration, was granted amnesty by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2011. But President Rodrigo Duterte said the amnesty was null and void.
Judge Elmo Alameda found for the government and said he was convinced that Trillanes failed to file his amnesty application with the Department of National Defense because he failed to produce copies of the document.
Alameda ignored footage of Trillanes filing the application as well as a certification from former Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin that amnesty was in fact granted.
The senator is a vociferous critic of Mr. Duterte and his family, whom he had accused of having secret bank accounts and being involved in the illegal drug trade.
But Trillanes was in no way bogged down by his fate. If anything, he sports the look of the crusader, relishing what he says is his persecution. He believes he puts a face to all the President’s critics who are being silenced in one way or another.
Indeed the issue inflates an ego that has perfected—and profited from—the “rebel” mentality.
Despite this, we do not accept the latest Palace spin that Trillanes’ fate was a gift to him because of the political mileage it generated. Spokesman Harry Roque does not fool us when he says the administration practically did Trillanes a favor.
What is happening with Trillanes was the result of the administration’s propensity to reject all criticism and brand even well-meaning observers as enemies of the people.
Trillanes was given the opportunity to present himself a crusader anew because of Mr. Duterte’s sensitivity to critics and almost-instinctive tendency to retaliate when other people do not agree with what he does or says.
It’s a tendency that promises to bring more trouble to the President, who should instead be showing us what wonders collaboration and yes, even dissent, could do for a country that struggles to break free from the evils of its past.
