SENTOR Antonio Trillanes IV will not be arrested despite the issuance and eventual receipt of the police of copies of four arrest warrants in connection with the libel cases filed by former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-n-law, lawyer Mans Carpio.
This is because of the Constitutional provision which grants a senator or a congressman an immunity from arrest for cases with imprisonment penalties of less than six year, according to Director Guillermo Eleazar, head of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).
He was referring to Article VI Section 11 of the 1987 Constitution which states that: “A senator or a member of the House of Representatives shall in all offenses punishable by not more than six years imprisonment be privileged from arrest while Congress is in session.”
Libel case has a penalty of six months to four years imprisonment.
“In this regard, our legal office at the NCRPO says that we have to abide by the Constitution,” said Eleazar.
The official said they received the copy of the four arrest warrants on Saturday in coordination with the Davao City court which issued them, Davao City Regional Trial Court Branch 54 under Judge Melinda Alconcel- Dayanghirang.
“We received the copy of the arrest warrant yesterday (Saturday) on our own initiative,” Eleazar said.
The arrest warrant stemmed from the libel charges filed by President Duterte’s son, Paolo, who opted to resign as Davao City vice mayor over the allegations of Trillanes linking him to the smuggling of hundreds of kilos of shabu.
The fourth arrest warrant on libel charge was based on the case filed Carpio, husband of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, whom Trillanes also implicated in drug smuggling allegation.
The younger Duterte, it was recalled, denied the allegation and described Trillanes’s allegation as part of the effort to attack his father. (Aaron Recuenco)
