FACT CHECK: No Supreme Court arrest order for Trillanes

Claim: The Supreme Court has ordered the arrest of former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The YouTube videos containing the claim have accumulated a combined total of 37,000 views, 958 likes, and 98 comments as of writing. The videos were posted by “PINAS BALITA TV,” a YouTube channel claiming to be a news outlet with 170,000 subscribers and “Rey Cab Vlog Thru Christ,” which presents itself as a charity channel with 22,600 subscribers. 

The title in the video states: “Trillanes kulong ka [din] thats what im sure of/PBBM Romualdez mgpatayan.”

(Trillanes, you’re going to jail too — that’s what I’m sure of. PBBM and Romualdez are tearing each other apart.)

Its thumbnail shows the text, “Kulong na? Trillanes guilty na! (Prison? Trillanes is guilty!)”

Another video further claims that Trillanes can no longer evade accountability after the Supreme Court signed and released an order against him.

The claim emerged amid Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment proceedings, where Trillanes testified before the House justice committee on allegations involving the Duterte family’s unexplained wealth, undeclared bank transactions, and possible violations of the Constitution. 

The facts: There is no verified Supreme Court ruling, resolution, or official order for Trillanes’ imprisonment. 

Trillanes has previously been ordered arrested. In 2018, a Makati court issued an arrest order after then-president Rodrigo Duterte revoked Trillanes’ amnesty over the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and 2007 Manila Peninsula siege. That move attempted to revive rebellion charges that had already been dismissed in 2011.

However, the legal basis for that arrest was later invalidated. In April 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that Trillanes’ amnesty was valid and that its unilateral revocation was unconstitutional, effectively nullifying the revived cases tied to the 2018 warrant.

Duterte wealth allegations: Trillanes, a fierce Duterte critic, testified during the April 22, 2026, House justice committee hearing on the Vice President’s impeachment. He presented records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) that, he said, show financial flows involving members of the Duterte family — reviving allegations first raised in 2016 about large unexplained bank transactions. (READ: The men who had the correct bank records on Dutertes all along)

AMLC officials later said a total of P6.77 billion in suspicious transactions flowed through the bank accounts of Duterte and her husband from 2006 to 2025, which reportedly did not align with their Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth declarations.

The Duterte camp rejected the allegations, calling them untrue and politically motivated, while AMLC officials faced renewed scrutiny over past handling of flagged transactions. (READ: IN NUMBERS: What impeachment hearings unveiled about Sara Duterte’s wealth)

The House of Representatives impeached Duterte for a second time on Monday, May 11, with 257 votes in favor of her impeachment, 25 against, and 9 abstentions, making her the first Philippine official to be impeached twice. – Marjuice Destinado/Rappler.com

Marjuice Destinado is a senior political science student at Cebu Normal University (CNU) and an alumna of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship of Rappler for 2025.

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