DOJ chief on Trillanes’ amnesty: It can be revoked anytime

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Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Tuesday defended President Rodrigo Duterte’s proclamation revoking the amnesty granted to Senator Antonio Trillanes IV by the previous administration.

“The matter of taking a look at whether an amnesty granted is valid or not is something that can be done at any time because probably as you’ve seen from the proclamation, if that grant of amnesty is declared to be void… then it can be attacked at any time because it’s void,” Guevarra told Palace reporters in a phone interview.

“And the matter of timing is irrelevant. There is no time element or prescriptive period for something to be attacked if from the beginning it is void,” he added.

In his Proclamation 572 signed on August 31, Duterte ordered the revocation of the amnesty due to Trillanes’ failure to apply for amnesty and refusal to admit his crimes over the Oakwood Mutiny in 2003 and the Manila Peninsula Siege in 2007.

Duterte also ordered the military and the police “to employ all lawful means to apprehend” the coup leader “so that he can be recommitted to the detention facility where he had been incarcerated for him to stand trial for the crimes he is charged with.”

READ: Duterte revokes Trillanes amnesty, orders his arrest

Guevarra, who was designated officer-in-charge of the national government while Duterte is in Israel and Jordan, said he already has a copy of the proclamation which was published in a newspaper on Tuesday.

Trillanes said he is ready to face arrest following the President’s directive.   /vvp