MANILA, Philippines — The revocation of the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is a "clear persecution against one of the administration's toughest critics," Sen. Francis Pangilinan said.
Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party, expressed support for Trillanes and vowed to use all legal means to counter President Rodrigo Duterte's "illegal and abusive" exercise of power.
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"Proclamation 75 that granted amnesty to the senator in 2010 was concurred in by Congress. It could not be easily set aside by the whims of one man," Pangilinan said in a statement.
Noting that Trillanes has previously exposed Duterte's possible wrongdoings, Pangilinan stressed that the revocation of the former's amnesty has no justifiable basis and was only done to silence the him.
Pangilinan pointed out that revocation of an amnesty proclamation requires concurrence of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
"Absent our concurrence any arrest is illegal. We urge the Armed Forces and the PNP not to enforce an illegal arrest," Pangilinan said.
Rep. Gary Alejano (Magdalo Party-list) also condemned Duterte's proclamation declaring the amnesty granted to Trillanes as void.
Alejano, one of the soldiers involved in the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny, noted the possibility of his amnesty being revoked too.
"If they can do that (to Trillanes), they can also do that to me," Alejano told reporters, based on a radio dzBB report.
The Magdalo lawmaker, however, said that he is not alarmed over such possibility as they would exhaust all legal means to uphold their position.
Rep. Edgar Erice (Caloocan), meanwhile, described the revocation of Trillanes as "crazy" as it cannot be implemented without Congress approval.
"Is it now the rule that we cannot criticize government otherwise we will be persecuted. We will be transformed into a banana republic if [two] sitting senators, elected by the people, languishing in jail simply because they are in the opposition," Erice said in a statement.
Duterte's proclamation is "higly preposterous" and a "political vendetta" against Trillanes, Rep. Tom Villarin (Akbayan) said,
"The grounds cited by the proclamation like the non-application by Senator Trillanes of an amnesty is too flimsy and won't hold ground as former President (Benigno) Aquino with the concurrence of Congress made the amnesty full and complete," Villarin said in a statement.
Trillanes, meanwhile, said that he will not resist arrest but insisted that the amnesty was an act of Congress and cannot be superseded by an executive order.
"I will abide by the wisdom of the Senate leadership and my lawyers are exhausting all legal remedies to void this stupid executiove order," Trillanes said.