House should approve amnesty for mutineers as respect to PNoy - Enrile

As a sign of respect to President Benigno Aquino III, the House of Representatives should approve the resolution concurring with the amnesty granted to soldiers who participated in the uprisings against the Arroyo administration, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said on Wednesday. "Dapat pag-aralan pero (It should be studied but) I think we should respect the policy established by the President," Enrile told reporters in an interview. Last October, Aquino signed Proclamation No. 50, which will grant amnesty to 300 soldiers who revolted against the Arroyo administration in 2003, 2006, and 2007. Among these soldiers was detained Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Navy official who is facing coup d’etat charges before the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 148 and rebellion charges before the Makati RTC branch 150. For the amnesty grant to take effect, concurrence of Congress is needed. Enrile made the call on the same day the House delayed acting on the resolution after some lawmakers sought the presence of more resource persons for their hearings regarding the matter. Enrile, for his part, said negating President Aquino’s proposal might look like the congressmen are "rejecting" him as a leader. He added that if the government is willing to negotiate with communist rebels, it shouldn’t be denying forgiveness to people who served the country but just committed a mistake “in moment of weakness." Enrile said he cannot force the House of Representatives to agree with him. “You cannot dictate on the other chamber how they will do their work. Neither can I dictate on the members of the Senate," he said. He likewise said that he would not talk to House Speaker Sonny Belmonte about the issue. “I will respect his leadership. I believe that in the end they will have to approve it." In a separate interview, opposition Senator Joker Arroyo commended the move of their counterpart in Congress to delay the concurrence for a reinvestigation of the issue. “It might be that the House thinks better than the Senate. At least they want a review. We should study it," he said. The Senate had earlier conducted a hearing before approving on the committee level the resolution concurring with the proclamation, but Arroyo said they do not know what the contents of the committee report would be. “This Trillanes thing is very, very important. Can you imagine, trying to overthrow the government? You can’t take that lightly," he said. - KBK, GMANews.TV