LUCENA CITY – The ruling by a Makati City court not to issue an order for the arrest of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV was a strong political rebuff for the “vindictiveness” of President Rodrigo Duterte, the lawyers group National Union of Lawyers of thePhilippines (NUPL), said Tuesday.
“The court ruling, seen by many both in the legal and non-legal circles as a courageous act, is a huge political slap on this vindictive government that uses and abuses all means within its command,” Edre Olalia, NUPL president said in a statement.
Olalia said the decision of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 148 “should be another reality check on despots and would-be authoritarians that they cannot hold everybody by their noses absolutely at all times.”
On Monday, Judge Andres Soriano of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 148 turned down the government’s request for an arrest order against Trillanes, a staunch critic of the President.
Last August, the President issued Proclamation No. 572 which revoked Trillanes’ amnesty.
The presidential directive said Trillanes’ amnesty was void ab initio because the senator failed to file an application for it and admit his guilt over two failed uprisings against the Arroyo administration.
Olalia said the NUPL believed that the President’s “sweeping and defective proclamation revoking Senator Trillanes’ amnesty is what is actually void ab initio.”
“It effectively undermined the concept of amnesty (which is to have total amnesia of the act being amnestied) and negated the power not only of the executive that granted it but also the legislative power to concur with it,” the human rights lawyer said.
Olalia added: “It tried to pull a fast one on the judicial power and well-entrenched legal principles were it not for the faithfulness of this court to the “rule of law.”
The NUPL hailed Soriano for standing his ground and firm assertion of judicial independence with his studied order despite perceived extreme pressure from the Palace.
“The ruling simply used common sense, logic and standing legal doctrines and principles in disposing of the legal issue that camouflaged what is really a politically-motivated persecution,”
Olalia said. /muf/ac
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