DOJ on court’s ruling on Trillanes: ‘This is not the end of it’

This is not the end of it.

This was how the Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Monday reacted to the ruling of Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 148 on Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s coup d’etat case.

READ: Trillanes, a free man for now: Makati court denies gov’t bid for his arrest

“I’d like to inform everyone that this is not the end of it. To some extent, both parties were successful. DOJ in so far as its contention that Proclamation No. 572 is valid and constitutional, on the other hand, also on the part of Senator Trillanes, the ruling was in his favor because of the factual findings of the trial court,” Guevarra said in a press briefing after the ruling was issued.

Judge Andres Soriano of the Makati RTC Branch 148 denied the DOJ motion for the court to issue an arrest warrant to Trillanes for coup d’ etat charges in connection with his involvement in the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny.

The case was dismissed in 2011 after Trillanes and the other Magdalo soldiers were given amnesty by then President Benigno Aquino III. The amnesty given specifically to Trillanes was revoked by President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation 572.

The justice secretary noted that the DOJ and Trillanes’ camp are expected to make their respective moves following the ruling.

“So we expect that both parties, of course, I’m talking in behalf of the DOJ, may elevate this ruling of the RTC to a superior court. On the part of Senator Trillanes, he may probably question that part of the ruling which stated that Proclamation No 572 is valid and constitutional,” he said.

“On the part of the DOJ, we’ll probably question the appreciation of the evidence by the trial court of Branch 148, so this is not the end of it. Nobody can’t claim he or it has actually come out as the victor in this proceedings,” he added.

Guevarra also reminded that the Makati court’s decision “is only one incident of a major case that is pending before the Supreme Court.”

He was referring to Proclamation No. 572, which was issued by the President on August 31.

“And this order by the trial court, whether of 148 or of 150 is not final, this is not the end of the proceedings,” he added. /ee

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