DAVAO CITY — -A Quezon City court has issued warrant of arrest against former Sen. Antonio Trillanes and 11 others who are accused of conspiracy to commit sedition over the viral “Ang Totoong Narcolist” videos.
In said videos, the family of President Rodrigo Duterte is linked to the narcotics trade.
Aside from Trillanes, the court also ordered the arrest of whistleblower Peter Joemel Advincula alias “Bikoy”, Jonnel P. Sangalang, Yolanda Ong, Fr. Flaviano Villanueva, Fr. Albert E. Alejo, Vicente R. Romano III, film actor Joel Saracho, Eduardo Acierto, publicist Boom Enriquez, and a certain “Monique”.
Advincula, the sole witness of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, is also a defendant in the conspiracy case. He will go to court on Monday or Tuesday to post bail, his lawyer, Larry Gadon, said.
Advincula is currently in a safehouse “somewhere in the north,” Gadon said in a message to reporters.
The Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 138 issued the orders on Thursday.
Villanueva and Alejo have posted bail P10,000 bail each, and the arrest warrants against them have been recalled.
Trillanes, in a statement issued Friday, said he would post bail next week.
“I am out of the country as of the moment for a series of engagements. But I intend to post bail once I arrive in Manila late next week,” he said.
“I will face this case just as I have faced all the other harassment cases Duterte’s minions have filed against me,” the former senator added.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Jan. 27 filed a complaint against Trillanes and several others, alleging they were involved in “circulating malicious and scurrilous libels to inflict an act of hate” against the President.
The complaint alleged that Trillanes and his co-accused are involved in “circulating malicious and scurrilous libels and fabricating evidence against him and his immediate family members, making it appear that the president and his family are engaged in a drug trade syndicate, with no other purpose but to inflict an act of hate or revenge against the president and his immediate family members.”
Trillanes earlier denied involvement in the supposed acts to discredit Duterte, saying the charges against him were meant to send a “chilling message” to the opposition.
