Guevarra: Police have to wait for warrant before arresting Trillanes
MANILA, Philippines — Without a court-issued warrant, police forces should not arrest Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.
The Makati court handling the coup d’etat case against Trillanes, on Wednesday, has set a hearing next week on state prosecutors plea for the issuance of an alias warrant and hold departure order against the senator.
“The police have to wait for the warrant,” Guevarra said in a message to reporters.
President Rodrigo Duterte, through Proclamation No. 572, said that the amnesty granted to the senator is “null from the beginning.”
The proclamation also ordered the Department of Justice and court martial of the Armed Forces of the Philippines to pursue all criminal and administrative cases filed in connection with the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003 and the Manila Peninsula siege in 2007.
On Tuesday afternoon, state prosecutors trooped to Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 48—where a case of coup d’etat was filed against Trillanes—and sought for an issuance of an alias warrant and travel ban against the senator.
An alias warrant contains the updated information on an accused person. It is issued if the original warrant of arrest is returned without being served.
But Presiding Judge Andres Bartolome Soriano, in an order dated September 5, instead set a court hearing on September 13, despite the prosecutors’ motion saying that a court hearing is not needed for the issuance of an alias warrant.
Guevarra, however deferred to comment on military court proceedings as he is not privy into it.
“As to the rules of the court martial, I’m not in the military so I don’t know their rules pertaining to their arrest,” the Justice chief added.
The Department of National Defense, for its part, admitted that the documents filed by Trillanes might have been lost throughout the years.
DND Director for Internal Audit Ronald Patrick Rudin said that the department is currently in the process of getting in touch with the committee in charge of processing Trillanes' documents eight years ago.
DND spokesperson Arsenio Andolong noted that Trillanes himself does not have a copy of his application form.
Trillanes, however, rebutted that he would not have received the certificate of amnesty if he did not fill out an application form in the first place. He also showed a photo of his application form.
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