MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra faced off on Wednesday since the controversy on the senator’s amnesty broke out last month.
Guevarra and other officials under the DOJ attended the Senate hearing on the 2019 budget of the Justice department.
Trillanes told Guevarra: “Your department is very powerful. You can be an instrument in dispensing justice. Sadly, in the wrong hands, it can be used also as an instrument of injustice.”
Guevarra was the designated Officer-in-Charge of the country when President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation 572 was published on September 4. The DOJ, through state prosecutors, also asked Makati courts to issue a warrant against the senator.
Trillanes said they can do “nothing” with his case anymore, but he added: “Ang satin dito, ‘pag nakita nyong mali, huwag. Even sa inyo...kapag nakita niyong hindi tama yan, you will have to say no di ba?”
“Mabigat yan. It takes a lot of moral courage to do that,” stressed Trillanes.
(What I'm trying to point out is that when you see something is wrong, don't. Even among yourselves, when you see that something is not right, you will have to say no, correct? That’s difficult. It takes a lot of moral courage to do that.)
“And you will serve as the refuge of those who are beneath you so they can start saying no as they know their superiors can protect them,” the senator added in a mix of Filipino and English.
Trillanes added that while he knows he could be “put away in prison or in detention” should the rebellion and coup d’etat cases against him be revived, he should be the “last casualty” of injustice.
Guevarra: DOJ will always follow the rule of law
Guevarra was appointed on April this year, taking the position former Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II whose leadership of the justice department was marred by controversial cases.
Guevarra, for his part, said that he agrees with Trillanes that “the DOJ should not be a weapon to persecute political opponents.”
He said that since becoming the head of the Justice department, he has made sure that the rule of law would be observed at all times.
The justice secretary, however, declined to comment on the ongoing cases against Trillanes due to the sub judice rule, which prohibits parties involved from discussing in public an active case.
Trillanes, defense officials also talked over amnesty
On Tuesday, Trillanes had the chance to ask defense officials on the issue of his amnesty.
Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff Carlito Galvez said Trillanes had applied for amnesty, citing the testimony of Col. Josefa Berbigal.
But the AFP said early Wednesday that it would be up to the courts to weigh Galvez’s remark.
Trillanes is due to attend a hearing on Friday at the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148, where he had been facing a coup d'etat charge over the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, a case that was dismissed in 2011 in pursuant to the amnesty.