DAVAO CITY (January 16) —Senator Antonio Trillanes pleaded not guilty to the four libel charges filed against him by Presidential sons Paolo Duterte and Manases Carpio during the arraignment Tuday here, at the sala of Davao City Regional Trial Court Branch 54 Judge Melinda Alconcel-Dayanghirang.
Trillanes, a vocal critic of the Duterte administration, earlier posted P96,000 in bail before Pasay Judge Rowena Nieves Tan — P24,000 for each of four counts of libel as set by Dayanghirang.
He was arraigned in Court Branch 54 under Judge Dayanghirang, he was with some Magdalo supporters.
The libel cases stemmed from complaints filed by former Davao City vice mayor Paolo Duterte over Trilanes’ allegations linking him to the smuggling of billions worth of shabu and extortion on ride-sharing firm Uber and other firms.
When asked how he felt about the arraignment and his visit to Davao City, Trillanes said “Mabuti naman. Nag plead not guilty ako (It was good. I pleaded not guilty).”
Trillanes waited for almost two ours inside the court for his arraignment which started at about 8:30 a.m on Tuesday.
The opposition senator has earlier been declared as persona non grata by the Davao City council because of his comment that Davao City has the highest murder rate and is the number one most dangerous city in the Philippines.
Lawyer Rainier Madrid, Paolo Duterte’s legal counsel, said they welcome the senator’s arraignment for the case to move forward.
“At least he has been arraigned at gumagalaw na yung mga kaso (and the cases can now proceed),” Madrid said, adding their camp intends to complete the cases in a year.
The next step would be a hearing for mediation tentatively scheduled on March 21.
But Madrid said the March 21 hearing may not proceed because of the pending petition by Trillanes to review the resolution of local prosecutors indicting the Senator. The DOJ review will take about 60 days, he added.
Paolo and Carpio have repeatedly denied both allegations, even as far as appearing before a Senate inquiry where they strongly condemned the senator’s accusations. -NewsLine with reports from PNA
