Updated @ 4:59 p.m., Sept. 8, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte revealed on Saturday that it was Solicitor General Jose Calida who did the research to support his issuance of Proclamation 572, which voided the amnesty granted to Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV.

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“Ang totoo niyan ang nag-research si Calida, like ‘yung kay Sereno,” he said, referring to Ma. Lourdes Sereno who was ousted as Supreme Court chief justice through a quo warranto petition filed by Calida.

[The truth is Calida did the research, as he did in the case of Sereno.]

“Pag sinabi ng SolGen [Solicitor General] na may mali, and this has to be corrected, I cannot refuse,” Duterte said during a press conference at his arrival in the Philippines from his trip to Israel and Jordan. “Lalo na in view of the fact that it was already recorded as a public paper. Kung ano ang sinabi niya doon, ‘yun ang paniwalaan ko.”

[When the SolGen says there’s something wrong and that this has to be corrected, I cannot refuse. More so, in view of the fact that it was already recorded as a public paper. What he said there is what I believe.]

The President insisted that the amnesty granted to Trillanes by the his predecessor, President Benigno Aquino III, was “defective” and “fatally flawed.”

He also explained that there was usurpation of authority in granting the amnesty, since he said the one who recommended it was also the one who approved it.

“Therefore, his getting out of the custody is also void,” the President stressed.

Calida earlier refused to reveal his role in the issue.

Trillanes, meanwhile, slammed this latest revelation of the President.

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“Di ba, pero nung tinanong si Calida anong sinasabi niya, wala siyang kinalaman,” Trilanes said in a press briefing.

[When Calida was being asked in his involvement, what was he saying was that he knew nothing.]

Trillanes added that Calida produced by “magic” the grounds for revoking his amnesty. /muf /atm

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