Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr.
President Duterte’s chief legal counsel has rejected the statement of the country’s military chief that Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV indeed applied for amnesty in 2011, saying it was mere hearsay.
Salvador Panelo challenged the soldier-turned-senator to stop making excuses and just face the music.
The President and the state, he said, “will not be held hostage to an alleged amnesty grantee who continues to commit atrocities against the duly constituted bodies of our government.”
“Trillanes should face the music and start to dance his way either to freedom or to jail,” Panelo added.
Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, admitted in a Senate budget hearing on Tuesday that Trillanes, the fiercest critic of Mr. Duterte in Congress, applied for amnesty.
Colonel’s affidavit
Galvez based his remarks on the affidavit of Col. Josefa Berbigal that she administered Trillanes’ oath when the senator applied for amnesty under the Aquino administration.
Last month, the President issued Proclamation No. 572, which voided Trillanes’ amnesty and ordered his arrest.
The proclamation’s grounds for revoking Trillanes’ amnesty were his supposed failure to apply for amnesty and admit his guilt in attempts to overthrow the government during the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula siege.
However, video footage and coverages by news outfits showed that the senator applied for amnesty and that his application was found to be in order by the Department of National Defense.
Panelo said Galvez’s statement based on Berbigal’s admission was not a direct proof that the senator indeed filed an application for amnesty.
Galvez, he noted, only read from Berbigal’s affidavit and explained that he had no personal knowledge if Trillanes applied for amnesty.
‘Not an admission’
“Clearly, such attribution by General Galvez to Colonel Berbigal is not an admission that Senator Trillanes indeed filed an application. As to General Galvez, the alleged admission, which is not, but assuming that it is, is not admissible in evidence the same being hearsay,” Panelo said.
He added: “Trillanes should exemplify his bona fide intention to uphold the rule of law and give respect to the authority of the duly constituted bodies of government, which he has not.”