Trillanes tells DOJ chief: ‘Injustice’ should stop with me
Let the “injustice” stop with me.
Opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV made this appeal on Wednesday to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra when they faced each other during the hearing of the Senate committee on finance.
Trillanes reminded Guevarra that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is “very powerful” and the “instrument for dispensing justice.”
“Sadly in the wrong hands, it can be used also as an instrument of injustice,” said the senator.
Acting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s order through Proclamation No. 572, the DOJ has revived the rebellion and coup d’ etat charges against Trillanes.
In the said proclamation, Duterte revoked the amnesty granted to Trillanes by the previous administration. The President also ordered the senator’s arrest.
READ: Duterte revokes Trillanes amnesty, orders his arrest
But Trillanes said: “What’s done is done. Iyong nangyayari sa akin ngayon, I can be put away in prison or in detention without bail ha, for a missing application form.”
Duterte claimed in the proclamation that Trillanes did not file his application for amnesty and that he did not admit guilt to the crimes he had committed in connection with the failed uprisings during the time of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“In any definition of justice, talagang wala iyon. But sige na, let me be the last casualty for that,” he said, adding that the experience of ordinary people could be worse than him.
Directly addressing the Justice Secretary, the senator asked that “injustice” should stop with him.
“I hope you can give your word Secretary Guevarra (that) the injustice stops with me. Ako na ang huling (I should be the last) casualty,” Trillanes said.
Responding to the senator, Guevarra promised that the DOJ would leave up to its name of being the “administrator of justice” to everyone.
He also agreed with Trillanes that the DOJ should not be used as a weapon to persecute political opponents.
“Since the time I assumed office as Secretary of Justice, I’ve always made it a point for the department to observe the rule of law and to base all of its action on the available evidence and nothing else,” Guevarra said.
He refused, however, to comment on the pending cases against Trillanes and Senator Leila de Lima, saying that the cases are already in courts.
In return, Trillanes also assured the DOJ chief that he would not be vindictive even when “circumstances” change.
“Hindi po ako ganun. Ok lang yan. (We are not like that. It’s OK.) It’s fair game,” the senator said. /ee
