A Pasay City judge has rejected a plea of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV to dismiss the inciting to sedition case filed against him in connection with his speech regarding the alleged hidden wealth of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2017.
Judge Remiebel Mondia of the Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 45 denied Trillanes’ motion for lack of merit in a decision dated Feb. 22 that was released only on Thursday.
Trillanes, a military man and coup leader turned politician, is a fierce critic of the President.
In November 2017, a group of lawyers led by former congressmen Jacinto Paras and Glenn Chong filed charges of inciting sedition and proposing to commit coup d’ etat against the senator.
The group cited as basis for their complaint the statement of Trillanes during his speech that soldiers might shoot Duterte to fulfill his wish that he be shot if the allegations he had hidden wealth were proven.
“Now, Mr. Duterte said he can be shot dead if there is P40 million in his accounts. He said that in front of the soldiers,” said the complaint, quoting Trillanes.
The lawyers’ group accused Trillanes of committing “conspiracy or proposal to commit coup d’ etat and inciting sedition” for encouraging the military to go up against the President, saying he should be indicted under Articles 136 and 142 of the Revised Penal Code.
In his privilege speech on Oct. 3, 2017, Trillanes accused Duterte of having bank accounts with transactions amounting to over P2 billion from September 2006 to December 2015.
Manuelito Luna, the complainants’ legal counsel, said the speeches by Trillanes”•including his privilege speech in the Senate”•were not protected by immunity from suits.
“The Oct. 3 privilege speech against the President and the government is not protected speech under the speech or debate clause,” Luna said.
The complaint cited as another basis Trillanes’ speech during the launch of the Tindig Pilipinas movement on Oct. 14, 2017 involving Duterte’s alleged bank deposits.
He said that one of the alleged accounts had deposits of P50 million at least 13 times.
He also said that, in another bank account, there were at least 20 deposits of P40 million to P50 million each.
In March 2018, Pasay City prosecutors office found probable cause to charge Trillanes for inciting to sedition but dismissed the complaint for conspiracy and proposal to commit coup d’etat.