Trillanes amnesty went through the process »Manila Bulletin News

By Francis Wakefield

Former Secretary of Defense Voltaire Gazmin said Thursday that he is currently in contact with the special committee of the Department of Defense who had submitted the recommendation of amnesty to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Gazmin made this remark by confirming that Trillanes had indeed submitted an application for amnesty,

"As far as I can remember, everyone who has benefited from an amnesty has been subjected to the process. I contact the Special Committee so that the facts can be updated, as happened several years ago, "said Mr. Gazmin.

In 2010, President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III issued Proclamation No. 75 amnestying the active and former military and police and their supporters involved in the Oakwood mutiny, the 2006 Marine confrontation and the Peninsular Peninsula. Manila.

Trillanes, a former naval officer detained for seven years at the PNP detention center awaiting trial, was among the agents allowed to walk freely by Aquino.

However, in Proclamation No. 572, President Rodrigo Duterte said that the amnesty granted to Trillanes in 2010 was "void ab initio" because he did not ask for amnesty and n & # 39; He did not admit his guilt for the crimes committed.

As a result, the President authorized the arrest and prosecution of Trillanes for his involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the Manila Peninsula hotel headquarters in 2007 against the administration of the then President. , Gloria Arroyo.

Duterte ordered the Ministry of Justice (DOJ) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to "pursue all criminal and administrative cases" against Trillanes in connection with both incidents.

The Philippine National Police and AFP were also ordered to "use all legitimate means to apprehend Trillanes" so that he could be returned to the detention center where he had been incarcerated for the crimes of which he is accused.

During the last proclamation, Mr. Duterte pointed out that Mr. Trillanes had not filed an official form of proclamation of amnesty in order to benefit from the program.

"There is no available copy of his application for amnesty in the files," read the proclamation.

The same proclamation also noted that Trillanes "has never expressed his guilt for the crimes that were committed on the Oakwood Mutinty and Peninsula Manila hotel headquarters.

"Despite the former LTSG Trillanes IV's failure to seek amnesty and refusal to admit her guilt, her name was nevertheless among those granted under Resolution No. 2 of the DND Special Committee (Department of National Defense ) approved by former Secretary of National Defense Voltaire T. Gazmin, "he said.

The proclamation, published last August 31, "took effect immediately". The documentation published Tuesday, September 4 on a newspaper was then confirmed by the Secretary of Justice, Menardo Guevarra.