The Justice department has asked a Makati judge to partially reconsider his decision denying its request to have Senator Antonio Trillanes IV arrested for a previously dismissed coup d’etat case.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Friday state prosecutors had filed a motion for partial reconsideration before Judge Andres Soriano at 4:30 pm on Thursday.
Soriano, the presiding judge of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148, will hear the motion on Oct. 30, Guevarra told reporters.
Guevarra had earlier said the Justice department would only contest Soriano’s factual findings: That Trillanes applied for amnesty and admitted his guilt for his participation in the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, among other things, contradicting the basis of the presidential proclamation that revoked his amnesty.
While Soriano refused to order Trillanes’ arrest on account of the “final” dismissal of the coup d’etat case in 2011, he recognized the legality of Proclamation 572, the Duterte directive that declared the administration critic’s amnesty void from the beginning.
Soriano’s ruling, seen as largely favorable to Trillanes, clashes with that of his fellow Makati judge, Elmo Alameda, who ordered the senator arrested last month for a similarly dismissed rebellion case.
Now out on bail, Trillanes is contesting Alameda’s ruling. Alameda has ordered the filing of necessary pleadings before he rules on the senator’s motion for reconsideration.
Lawyers say that Soriano and Alameda’s conflicting findings may eventually have to be resolved by the Supreme Court, which is already saddled with a petition assailing the constitutionality of Proclamation 572.
