Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. INQUIRER FILE / JOAN BONDOC
House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was mum on the arrest of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, the former navy officer who staged two foiled mutinies to topple her presidency.
“No reaction,” Arroyo told reporters on Wednesday.
When a reporter pressed the question and cited Trillanes’ mutinies during her presidency, she insisted, “Still, no reaction.”
The House leader earlier said the revocation of the amnesty granted to Trillanes, one of the fiercest critics of the Duterte administration, was a legal issue that needed the court’s discretion.
“Well it’s a legal issue and he’s gone to court. Let’s see what the court have to say,” she said.
READ: Arroyo on revocation of Trillanes’ amnesty: It’s a legal issue
The Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 150 issued an arrest warrant and hold departure order against the senator on Tuesday. He was released after posting a bail of P200,000.
READ: Arrest Trillanes – Makati court
Trillanes was facing a rebellion charge before Branch 150 but it was dismissed after then-President Benigno S. Aquino III granted him amnesty.
However, President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation 572 last August 30 that declared the amnesty to Trillanes as void from the start and ordered for his arrest.
READ: Arrest Trillanes – Duterte
Duterte, in his order, said that amnesty was void ab initio because the senator failed to submit an application for it and did not admit his guilt over his involvement in the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.
Proclamation 572 cited the absence of the application form of Trillanes and his media pronouncement that he only admitted to “breaking rules” and not the military uprisings.
Trillanes has denied these claims and maintained that the grant of his amnesty went through the process.
READ: Trillanes presents proof he applied for amnesty | Court documents show cases vs Trillanes, et al. dismissed in 2011
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