Lorenzana to Trillanes: We ‘dug’ up but couldn’t find amnesty application
After initiating its own investigation, the Department of National Defense (DND) said it still could not find the missing amnesty application of opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.
DND Secretary Delfin Lorenzan revealed the initial findings of their investigation when Trillanes asked him during a Senate hearing on Tuesday about his missing amnesty application.
“Gusto ko lang, Sir, malaman, kasi alam nyo na naman ‘yung totoo e. Nag apply ba ako sir ng amnesty as far as your investigation is concerned, Sir?” the senator asked.
At first, Lorenzana explained that he was not knowledgeable about the senator’s application as it happened before his time.
Although he repeated that last August 16, he received a call from Solicitor General Jose Calida asking him if they could produce the amnesty records.
The Defense chief said his staff was able to produce Proclamation No. 75 issued by then-President Benigno S. Aquino III as well as an amnesty document signed by then-Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin.
“’Yun lang ang galing sa amin, those are the only two documents that were given to him (Calida) which i think are public documents anyway,” Lorenzana said.
But later on, he said, Calida wrote the General Head Quarters (GHQ) to ask for some other records like Trillanes’ amnesty application.
Lorenzana said a J1 staff, however, certified that the senator’s amnesty application could not be found or “inexistent” at the GHQ.
“Those are the documents that SolGen Calida got from DND and GHQ,” he pointed out.
When Trillanes asked if the DND has already conducted its own investigation on the missing document, Lorenzana said: “We did, we did senator. And in fact, we dug up wala namang makita (we couldn’t find any).”
“So we reached out to the members of the ad hoc committee on amnesty, and wala pa silang sagot eh. Their (answers) are not forthcoming. Anyway, we have invited them also (at the HQ to shed light on this missing document),” he added.
For his part, Armed Forces chief Carlito Galvez Jr. surmised there had been some “lapses” in the handling of the documents.
“Si Lt. Col. Josefa Berbigal is the one who administered your oath,” Galvez said.
Berbigal, an officer at the Judge Advocate General’s office, has filed an affidavit in court, supporting Trillanes’ claim he had applied for amnesty and was granted by the past administration.
READ: Colonel says Trillanes filed for amnesty
“Apparently, Sir, there are some lapses na hindi po naibaba ‘yung mga documents po sa J1, which is basically the repository of all the documents…” Galvez said.
“Apparently, ang suspicion po namin, Sir, ang repository ng mga documents nito hindi po nababa sa amin sa GHQ,” he added.
“So nag apply po ako, Sir?” Trillanes asked.
“According to her (Berbigal),” Galvez said. /kga
