For disregarding the authority of the court, government lawyers are now asking the Davao City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 54 trying Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV on four counts of libel to order the legislator’s arrest and cancelation of his bail.

Trillanes prematurely left the country prior to a court ruling on his petition to travel abroad.

NEWS | Trillanes arrest sought for leaving PHL pending court approval

NEWS | Trillanes arrest sought for leaving PHL pending court approval

Posted by PTV on Thursday, 17 January 2019

In a motion dated 10 January, Davao City Assistant City Prosecutor Joseph Mamburan cited the motion of the lawyers of former Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte that claimed Trillanes left the country on 11 December 2018, a day after posting bail before the Pasay court and before the Davao court could issue a ruling on his travel plea.

Paolo Duterte. Trillanes left without waiting for prior leave or permission from the Davao court, the prosecution’s motion argued.

Duterte’s counsels Rainier Madrid, Peter Danao and Alvin Carullo had moved, in an urgent motion released yesterday, to repeal the bail of the embattled senator as Trillanes was already “guilty of flight” when he went abroad last month to attend to his speaking engagements in Amsterdam, Barcelona and London from 11 December 2018 to 11 January 2019.

Madrid said his early departure was a serious and material breach of his bail and temporary liberty, noting that Trillanes himself “repudiated his own bail.”

“Bail does not grant absolute freedom and liberty. It merely suspends the efficacy of the arrest warrant. It does not relieve the accused of his duties to this court, let alone give him absolute and complete freedom,” he added.

“Restriction on his right to travel abroad is implied. It is a necessary consequence and impact of his bail,” Madrid said.

“Apparently, accused flew out of Philippine jurisdiction without prior leave or permission from this court,” the motion said.

It also pointed out that the bail for Trillanes’ temporary liberty, which was posted last month, is a contract with the court and pushing through with his trip is considered “repudiation of the contract.”

Trillanes left without waiting for prior leave or permission from the Davao court.

“While he has self-servingly expressed no intention to evade these criminal charges, his actual flight belies it. Intent to flee is irrelevant, when in fact accused had been guilty of actual flight,” the urgent motion stated.

Prior to leaving the country last month, the senator filed motions in various courts where he had pending cases and asked that he be allowed to travel abroad as the Makati City RTC Judge Elmo Alameda granted Trillanes’ request.

Malacañang also shrugged off Trillanes’ allegations of the administration as the mastermind behind threats to his life as fantasy.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo made the remark following the senator’s request to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for exemption from the election gun ban as there are supposedly threats to his security.

Trillanes, at a recent forum in the Senate, said the country is a lot more dangerous these days and that he has been getting death threats from President Rodrigo Duterte.

NEWS | Panelo: Threat claims of Trillanes 'mere imagination'

NEWS | Panelo: Threat claims of Trillanes 'mere imagination'