Dismisses proposal to commit coup d’ètat charges vs him
(Eagle News)—The Pasay Prosecutors Office has found probable cause to indict Senator Antonio Trillanes IV for inciting to sedition.
In recommending the filing of the case against Trillanes in court, Assistant Prosecutor Reynaldo Ticyado ruled the senator’s media comments against President Rodrigo Duterte tended to instill a “feeling of hatred and distrust” toward the chief executive “and the government that he represented.”
The prosecutor noted that the statement was also “disseminated to the general public, thereby creating a danger of breach of peace and public order.”
“Under the dangerous tendency rule, there is inciting to sedition when the words uttered or published could easily produce disaffection among the people and a state of feeling in them incompatible with a disposition to remain loyal to the government and obedient to the laws,” Ticyado said.
Ticyado also dismissed Trillanes’ claim he could not be charged because of parliamentary immunity, saying that while the remarks were made within the halls of the Senate, they were “not made while the Senate was in session and in connection with the discharge of his official duties as a senator.”
Proposal to commit coup d’ètat
According to Ticyado, Trillanes could however not be indicted for proposal to commit coup d’état.
For this, Ticyado noted a statement by the senator in 2013 which he said was “intended to remind the military and police personnel concerned to act within the bounds of the law and not to commit any act constituting the crime of coup d’ètat….”
“Duterte will not be there for long. Please do not do anything illegal or unconstitutional,” Trillanes had said.
“Wherefore, premises considered, it is respectfully recommended that the respondent be indicted for the crime of inciting to sedition defined and penalized under Article 142 of the Revised Penal Code…whereas the complaint for proposal to commit coup d’ètat be dismissed for insufficiency of evidence,” the prosecutor said.
The charges against Trillanes were filed by the group of Labor Undersecretary Jing Paras last year.
