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Former President Benigno S. Aquino III. INQUIRY.NET PHOTO / CATHY MIRANDA
Updated at 12:29 on 12 September 2018
Former President Benigno Aquino III said Tuesday that if the process he had followed in granting the amnesty to Antonio Trillanes IV in 2011 was invalid, as Malacañang asserted, all the amnesties granted by his predecessors were equally invalid.
Mr Aquino said he had followed the amnesty process used by Presidents Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Cancel all
"If our amnesty agreement with Trillanes was wrong, it follows that the subsidies granted by the other presidents were also wrong because the process followed by all was the same," he said by telephone. .
If the administration of Duterte wants to cancel the amnesty granted to Trillanes, it must also cancel the amnesty grants granted by all former presidents, added Mr. Aquino.
"How many thousands are those?" Asked he.
Aquino commented on Malacañang's assertion that the amnesty granted to Trillanes was nil because it had been recommended and granted by his former secretary of defense, Voltaire Gazmin.
President Duterte himself had stated that the granting of amnesty was an exclusive prerogative of the president and that it could not be delegated to other officials.
READ: Duterte accuses Gazmin of loopholes in Trillanes' amnesty papers
Aquino said that he had not delegated his power of amnesty to Gazmin.
"Proclamation 75 is the document I signed," he said, referring to his 2010 amnesty proclamation passed by Congress.
"I did not delegate. This is the practical way to run this program, which is to designate an organization to tackle the applications of specific people, "he said.
If Malacañang wants to see a document he signed by granting an amnesty to Trillanes, he should look for amnesty grants signed by his mother, President Corazon Aquino, Presidents Ramos, Estrada and Arroyo, he added.
"Don" in Duterte
Former national security advisor Jose Almonte said on Tuesday that the abolition of the Trillanes amnesty had apparently been made in retaliation for the senator's harsh criticism of Duterte's administration: "Give to others what they make you.
Almonte, Ramos National Security Advisor, said that the golden rule – to make others what you want others to do to you – was a jewel.
"But do not do it the wrong way," he said.
Trillanes is a gift to President Rodrigo Duterte because it is proof that there is a democracy in the Philippines, said Almonte.
"We are a democracy. In a democracy, you have an opposition, "he said.
Almonte recalled that during martial law, the cabinet of President Ferdinand Marcos wanted to stand after the opposition.
"What Marcos said was this: you know, we are a democracy. If we do not have opposition, we may have to even organize one. Otherwise, we will not have democracy, "Almonte said.
"Trillanes is a gift to President Duterte because he is the only opposition," he added.
Loss of probe application
Almonte said Trillanes should not be punished because his request for amnesty could not be found.
"Looking for why they can not find the original. This is not enough to conclude that there is no demand, "he said. -With a report by Leila B. Salaverria
/ kga / pdi / atm
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