Senator Antonio Trillanes IV will face trial for rebellion for his participation in the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege after a Makati court junked his petition to overturn its decision to revive the criminal case against him.
In an order dated Dec. 18, 2018, but released only Monday, Judge Elmo Alameda of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 150 dismissed Trillanes’ motion and reaffirmed his order for the senator’s arrest and the issuance of a hold-departure order against him.
The rebellion case—which had been dismissed because of an amnesty granted to Trillanes—was revived after President Rodrigo Duterte issued a proclamation voiding that amnesty.
The court sustained its finding that Trillanes failed to prove that he has complied with the minimum requirements when he applied for amnesty under the previous administration.
READ: DOJ warns Trillanes‘ supporters of contempt
“Unfortunately, Senator Trillanes failed to prove that the original of the alleged application form exists. Senator Trillanes even failed to explain his failure to locate or find the copy thereof,” said the order, a copy of which received by the Department of Justice on Monday.
The court also cited the senator’s failure to prove the contents of his application.
“Since the existence of the fact of his admission of guilty of the crime he committed, the substitutionary evidence presented by Senator Trillanes is considered hearsay evidence and cannot be admitted as evidence to prove compliance with the minimum requirement set forth in Proclamation No. 75 (Amnesty Grant),” the RTC said.
The court held that the contentions of Trillanes in his appeal were already addressed by the court in its earlier ruling.
READ: Trillanes arrested, posts bail
“Senator Trillanes was not able to prove through testimonial and documentary evidence that he filed his application for amnesty nor expressly admitted his guilty in the application form for the crime he committed during the Manila Peninsula incident which are the minimum requirement set forth under Proclamation No. 75,” the court said.
Trillanes had earlier posted bail amounting to P200,000 before the RTC Branch 150 and was granted temporary liberty. The same court also allowed him to travel abroad when it granted last November his motion seeking to temporarily lift the HDO to attend various engagements from Dec. 11, 2018 to Jan. 12, 2019, and from Jan. 27 to Feb. 10, 2019.
The RTC revived the rebellion case against Trillanes upon a motion by the DOJ.
The DOJ filed a similar motion before Makati RTC Branch 148 to also revive the coup d’état case against him in connection with the 2003 Oakwood mutiny, but Judge Andres Soriano rejected the plea and ruled that the case was already dismissed and closed.
However, in the same ruling in October 2018, Soriano upheld the constitutionality of Proclamation No. 572, which voided the amnesty granted by the Aquino administration to Trillanes on both coup d’état and rebellion cases.
Trillanes has questioned the proclamation before the Supreme Court, but his plea for the issuance of a temporary restraining order was denied.
Trillanes, a former Navy lieutenant, was among those who led the mutiny in Oakwood Premiere Hotel in Makati City on July 27, 2003 and the Manila Peninsula siege on Nov. 29, 2007. Both actions were aimed at unseating then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
READ: Trillanes vows to go to jail if Duterte has proof vs parents
