Makati judge who ruled for Trillanes has experience with coup cases

Judge Andres Soriano of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 148 contradicted no less than President Rodrigo Duterte when he ruled partly in favor of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV in a drawn-out legal dispute over the former mutineer's amnesty.

Released Monday afternoon, Soriano's highly anticipated ruling denied the Department of Justice's request for an arrest order against Trillanes for coup d'etat and struck down the factual basis of the presidential proclamation that nullified the senator's amnesty.

The decision comes almost a month after another judge, Elmo Alameda, ordered Trillanes' arrest for a separate case of rebellion, creating opposing rulings that may ultimately have to be resolved by the Supreme Court.

Soriano left his office Monday afternoon and headed straight to a waiting elevator, waving goodbye to and ignoring queries on his decision that, at the time, was still unclear.

Later, an elated Trillanes said Soriano "single-handedly" upheld justice and the rule of law in the Philippines.

Unlike Alameda, who decided a day after the pleadings he had required were completed, Soriano took his time - close to a month, a period that saw accusations of "pressure" from both camps and some "concerned citizens" leaving flowers in front of his office.

Cases, courts

While Trillanes' case was handled by other judges, this was not Soriano's first decision over a coup d'etat case related to the 2003 Oakwood Mutiny against former president and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In 2013, Soriano convicted 1LT. Lawrence San Juan and 1LT Rex Bolo of mutiny and coup d'etat charges, sentencing them to six to 12 years in prison. His decision was reversed by the Court of Appeals two years later.

Unlike Trillanes, San Juan and Bolo did not apply for government amnesty.

An appointee of former president Benigno Aquino III, Soriano has been the presiding judge of the Makati RTC's Branch 148 since 2012. Prior to this designation, he was a Malolos RTC judge since 1998.

He was a judge at the Bulacan court when he was nominated as Court Administrator in 2010, a post that Jose Midas Marquez was eventually appointed to and still occupies.

Soriano was also nominated as a Sandiganbayan associate justice in 2014, but lost to then-Manila RTC judge Ma. Theresa Dolores Gomez-Estoesta. In 2015, he was nominated to a Court of Appeals seat that was later given to then-fellow Makati RTC judge Perpetua Atal-Paño.

He earned his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1983 and was admitted to the Bar a year later. Now 62 years old, he is set to retire on November 30, 2026, when he turns 70, the compulsory retirement age. — DVM, GMA News