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The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) general court martial proceedings against Senator Antonio Trillanes IV will resume after President Rodrigo Duterte revoked the amnesty granted to him on 2010.

“The revocation of the amnesty issued by the President ab initio affectingly brings him back to his former status as military personnel. That being the case he will again be subject as he was subject of military regulation including the Articles of War which every military personnel in the active service is supposed to be subject to, so the answer is yes it could be continued,” Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo Tuesday.

“Remember it was just stopped because of the supervening event that is in the case of the amnesty which was given to him that’s now an issue. That’s why the proceeding was stopped. Now that the amnesty ab initio was revoked, meaning from the beginning, he will be reverted to his status as active military personnel subject to military law and military discipline,” he said.

“Therefore the court martial will have to reconstituted because the other members of the court martial has retired in which case acting AFP chief of staff Lt. Gen. Salvador Mison Jr. has instructed the convening of a general court martial that shall be hearing the case of Lt. Trillanes,” he added.

Arevalo said the court martial will resume the trial that was stopped because of the amnesty to Trillanes.

“With regard to the proceedings meaning general court martial proceedings, we will just continue the trial where we stopped (before),” he said.

“Right now I don’t have. I haven’t have any access to the records yet… but theoretically speaking, as it should be, it will start on where it stopped before the amnesty was issued,” he added.

Arsenio Andolong, Department of National Defense (DND) spokesman, said Trillanes will be placed under military detention facility once he is arrested.

“Once he is apprehended, he will be turned over to the custody of the military police because he was reverted to active military status and we at the Department of National Defense and Armed Forces of the Philippines are ready to accept him,” Andolong said.

“His detention facility is now ready. I believe ( it is) the same one that, where he was committed to before, but we will ensure all of his rights are protected once he is taken to custody,” he added.

Andolong said the military and police forces were sent to the Senate to apprehend Trillanes.

“There is now a team of the (Philippine National Police) PNP and our military police from the AFP, they are now at the Senate, ready to implement the apprehension of Senator Trillanes but out of respect for the ongoing proceedings they are waiting for the proceedings to end. Once that happens they will get in contact with Sen. Trillanes to implement the apprehension,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS