Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Thursday rejected his initial plan to leave the Senate premises and opted to stay in his office there due to the alleged threats on his life and the possibility he would be arrested soon.
He told reporters his driver left the Senate premises Thursday afternoon to gas up when he and some of his men aboard his vehicle noticed that they were being tailed by men riding in motorcycles.
He said his men were able to get photographs of the men aboard the motorcycles.
The Justice department on Thursday slammed Trillanes IV for his alleged propensity to “hole up in an enclosed building or establishment, just like what he did in 2003 at Oakwood, in 2007 at the Manila Peninsula and now in the Senate in his bid to evade the processes of the law.”
The DoJ said the Makati City regional trial court that dismissed the coup d’etat case against Trillanes should “simply ignore” its own judgment dismissing the case due to Proclamation 573 revoking the amnesty granted to him.
Malacañang said Thursday an impeachment complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte would not prosper after Magdalo Party-list Rep. Gary Alejano planned to charge the President for violating the country’s anti-wiretapping law.
“His [Trillanes] camp always files an impeachment complaint and nothing is happening, so let him file another impeachment complaint. Nothing will happen about that because it’s nonsense,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.
The DoJ on Thursday expressed confidence that the move to put Trillanes behind bars had gained ground after the Supreme Court earlier ruled on the trial court’s jurisdiction to hear and resolve the issue on the legality of President Duterte’s revocation of the amnesty granted to him for his involvement in the unsuccessful coup detat against the Arroyo administration.
Trillanes said it had been reported to his camp that there was a PNP personnel augmentation in the Senate grounds purportedly “to stop him from going back in” once he stepped out of the Senate building.
Trillanes said they had received a warning from the military that he would be arrested once he got out of the Senate building.
He also said unidentified men also tailed his driver and staff when they went out to get something.
He said what Duterte had told the media that he would not be arrested was contrary to what he had been doing.
To ensure his safety, Trillanes said, he had found it prudent to remain in his office until he received an assurance from the military that he would not be arrested. With Rey E. Requejo and Nat Mariano
