Revoking Trillanes’ amnesty a recipe for disaster–Lacierda

Revoking the amnesty of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV is a “recipe for disaster,” lawyer and former presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said on Friday.

According to Lacierda, revoking an amnesty would put the legal philosophy of amnesty “upside down.”

“It’s a recipe for disaster. You’re opening up a can of worms,” Lacierda said in an interview with ABS CBN News Channel.

“You are turning the entire legal philosophy of amnesty upside down. That’s the reason you’ve never seen an amnesty being revoked because it’s always settled,” he added.

He added that if the revocation of Trillanes’ amnesty would be pushed through, it would result in a “bad case.”

“If the Supreme Court would render otherwise, or decide otherwise that they can revoke, and succeeding presidents can revoke a previous president’s proclamation, or that amnesty is not absolute, that’s what we call a bad case, and bad case makes bad laws,” Lacierda said.

On August 31, President Duterte issued Proclamation No. 572 revoking the amnesty granted to Trillanes in 2010 citing that it was void from the start because the senator failed to file an application for amnesty and admit his guilt over the Oakwood mutiny in 2003 and Manila Peninsula siege in 2007.

Duterte also ordered the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to arrest the senator.

READ: Arrest Trillanes–Duterte / WHAT WENT BEFORE: Oakwood Mutiny and Trillanes’ 2nd try to oust Arroyo

The camp of Trillanes filed on Thursday a petition with the High Court seeking a temporary restraining order against Duterte’s Proclamation No. 572 that voided the amnesty granted to the senator in 2010.