DOJ asks court to reject Trillanes’ plea to junk Duterte proclamation

The Department of Justice on Monday asked the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) to reject the appeal of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV seeking to invalidate President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation No. 572, which voided the amnesty given to him in 2011.

“The revocation of the grant of amnesty to accused Trillanes… is a valid exercise of [the President’s] executive power,” state prosecutors told Judge Andres Soriano of Makati RTC Branch 148.

Soriano had upheld the constitutionality of the presidential proclamation, but did not order Trillanes’ arrest, saying the coup d’etat case against the senator in connection with the failed mutiny during the Arroyo administration had already been dismissed. —Marlon Ramos