FR. RANHILIO CALLANGAY AQUINO

I DO not think that the President has the power to declare void the amnesty that spared Sen. Antonio Trillanes 4th from prosecution, trial and possible incarceration. However, as Chief Executive he can ask that the unserved or standing warrants against Trillanes be served. As Commander in Chief he can order his arrest under military law, on the assumption of course that Trillanes is still governed by military law and the Articles of War. And while we are on the subject, let me just reject the proposition that a person can be forcibly re-conscripted into the army, to make him face the penalties that the Articles of War visit on an offender. It will then be for Trillanes to question the legality of the service of the warrants. That will be the government’s opportunity to prove that the conditions precedent were never complied with. It will be for the courts to pass upon the validity or invalidity of the amnesty. The proclamation issued by President Duterte is nothing more then than an order to law enforcers to serve the standing warrants but cannot be taken as a definitive pronouncement that the amnesty was void. The task of determining where rights lie is judicial.

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