By Vanne Elaine Terrazola
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV refused to accept the assurance given by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana that he will not be arrested in the absence of a warrant from courts.
Senator Antonio Trillanes speaks to the media at the Senate in Pasay City Senate, September 10,2018. (Czar Dancel/ MANILA BULLETIN)
This, as Trillanes maintained Wednesday that he will remain in the Senate unless he gets a "definitive" order from the Department of National Defense (DND) that he will not be taken into custody.
The opposition senator said he validated Lorenzana's statements from his own private sources, and learned from "concerned units" in the Armed Forces in the Philippines (AFP) that there were no orders not to arrest him.
"We tried to validate 'yong pronouncements na 'yan on the ground, but the concerned AFP units are maintaining that aarestuhin pa daw ako (they will still arrest me). Aarestuhin pa daw ako kasi 'yon ang order (They will supposedly arrest me because that was the order), and there is no new order reversing that previous order," Trillanes told reporters in a briefing.
"So far that has not translated into an actual order on the ground," he added.
When asked, however, Trillanes did not specify which units supposedly told him about the standing arrest order.
Meanwhile, he compared the DND chief's pronouncement to that of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) which, he said already gave "categorical statements" about his non-arrest.
He said Lorenzana's assurance was not enough and should be sent to the AFP as a formal order, saying, "That's how the AFP works."
Trillanes said his lawyers advised him not to go out of the Senate premises just yet "without such an order revoking the arrest order."
" Until they release a definitive order and it translates to the ground," he said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday denied the Trillanes' petition for a temporary restraining order against President Duterte's proclamation that voided his amnesty.
He has been staying in the Senate building for more than a week now since the publication of the said proclamation.