COUP CASE | Appeals court nixes government’s bid to revive Trillanes’ coup case

June 9, 2021 , 07:00 PM

(June 9, 2021) – The Court of Appeals has thrown out President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration’s effort to revive a coup case against a former senator, upholding a lower court’s decision to junk the case.

In a 67-page decision, the Court of Appeals’ Special 11th Division ruled there was no factual basis to accuse ex-senator Antonio Trillanes IV of failure to comply with the amnesty requirements in 2011, sustaining an earlier ruling issued by a Makati court in 2018.

Associate Justice Edwin Sorongon, who penned the ruling, said the court cannot find fault on the former senator for being unable to provide an original copy of his application for amnesty, as alleged by the justice department.

“No bad faith can be attributed to the private respondent for his failure to present the original or even at least a copy of the said application form,” the CA decision reads.

It was promulgated on May 31 but a copy of which was only released on Wednesday.

“Lamentable as it is, since this entire controversy is anchored on the purported inexistence of this application form, it would be certainly unfair, however, if private respondent or any other applicant-grantee for that matter would be allowed to suffer the consequences of the negligence or inefficiency of said public officer or office.”

Justice officials had planned to arrest Trillanes after Duterte revoked the former lawmakers’ amnesty in 2018 through Proclamation No. 572.

It opened up the possibility of pursuing criminal and administrative cases against Trillanes in relation to coup attempts to oust former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Trillanes, a former navy lieutenant, faced rebellion and coup d’etat charges for walking out of a courtroom during the hearing for the Oakwood mutiny in 2003 as well as for occupying the Manila Peninsula hotel in 2007.

Former President Benigno Aquino III granted his amnesty application in 2011.

Trillanes welcomed the decision of the appeals court. Another CA branch had earlier overturned a bid reinstating his rebellion case in March.

“Nagpapasalamat ako sa mga Court of Appeals justices sa pagtataguyod ng hustisya sa gitna ng mga baliktot na paggamit ni Duterte ng batas laban sa mga miyembro ng oposisyon,” Trillanes said.

The same court ruling, however, upheld the validity of Duterte’s proclamation revoking Trillanes’ amnesty as the constitution was unclear if Congress should approve the chief executive’s move.

It said Duterte had the legal right to revoke Trillanes’ amnesty alone without necessarily invalidating all amnesty recipients alongside the former senator.

“A plain reading of the former shows that it draws much from the provisions of the latter in revoking private respondent’s amnesty specifically on his alleged non-compliance with the minimum requirements thereby attached,” the CA said.

“[It] is a valid exercise by the President of his Constitutional power of control over all executive departments, bureaus, and offices. This has been succinctly defined by the Supreme Court as essentially the power to alter or modify or nullify or set aside what a subordinate officer had done in the performance of his duties and to substitute the judgment of the former with that of the latter.”

(Beatrice Puente/MM)

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