Post by oceanrider88 on Dec 18, 2007 11:02:18 GMT 8
MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has commuted the two life terms meted out to former Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo Jalosjos for raping an 11-year-old girl in 1996, Malacañang said Tuesday.
However, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita was quick to clarify that the President did not pardon Jalosjos.
“Commutation, not a pardon. Commutation in the sense (that it) has been commuted to something else,” Ermita said in Malacañang.
Ermita said Jalosjos, 66, would not be able to avail himself of a pardon until he reaches the age of 70.
“So that when the time comes at the age of 70, as other prisoners are also considered for executive clemency, it (pardon) will be extended to him,” the executive secretary said.
Asked why, he said: “You know, that’s an absolute power of the President under the Constitution.”
‘Special treatment’
When reached for comment, Katrina Legarda, the lawyer of Jalosjos’ victim, replied in a text message: “Of course it’s special treatment. Maybe it’s payment for electoral services rendered [to the administration].”
During the May 2004 elections, Ms Arroyo won by a margin of almost 100,000 votes over opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. in Zamboanga del Norte province, the bailiwick of Jalosjos.
On Dec. 11, 2004, after complaining of chest pains, Jalosjos was rushed to a hospital. Weeks later his mother, Angelina, made an emotional appeal to Ms Arroyo to grant her son a presidential pardon.
Before the year ended, Malacañang said it would seek the Department of Justice’s opinion on whether Jalosjos should be pardoned. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez later said that “every pardon issued by the President is a political decision.”
Back to ‘Garci’s’ rape of poll
Upset by Malacañang’s decision to commute the former lawmaker’s sentence, Legarda found the administration’s move consistent with its role in past controversies.
She cited the involvement of former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in alleged electoral fraud in favor of the administration, and the bank accounts of Jose Pidal, purportedly the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo.
“What can we say? This President has allowed a Garci (Garcillano), rapist of the electoral process, allowed a Pidal, a rapist of the economy. So she must have wanted to complete the cast of characters and allow a rapist of our children to do as he wants also,” Legarda said.
Jalosjos was sentenced to two life terms for statutory rape and an additional 8 to 15 years for each of the six counts of acts of lasciviousness.
Enshrined in Constitution
The power of the President to pardon prisoners is enshrined in the Constitution.
The President may grant executive clemency to prisoners serving their sentences after final judgment.
Besides commuting the death sentences of convicts to life in prison prior to the abolition of capital punishment in June last year, Ms Arroyo has made it a policy to grant executive clemency to inmates aged 70 and older.
She issued Memorandum Circular No. 155 in 2004 which states: “It is the policy of the Arroyo administration to extend executive clemency to deserving elderly inmates out of compassion and based on humanitarian grounds.”
She then directed the Bureaus of Correction and Jail Management and Penology and the Board of Pardons and Parole to forward to the Office of the President the records of inmates who were 70 years old and over.
Act of injustice
Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), said the commutation was a severe act of injustice against all rape victims in the country.
“He (Jalosjos) is not even 70 years old, which would qualify him for the Malacañang memorandum circular (on the commutation of the elderly),” Jimenez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.
Jimenez said Jalosjos had to complete his life sentence so his victim could at least feel that she had been given justice.
The VACC chair also lamented that the commutation would affect the group’s drive against rapists and those who commit crimes against women.
“It seems that powerful and very influential people like Jalosjos have Malacañang’s ear,” Jimenez said.
“His (Jalosjos’) premature commutation would definitely send a wrong message to all those vigilantly monitoring countless unsolved rape cases in the country,” he said.
Jail gets commutation order
A source at the New Bilibid Prisons Tuesday confirmed that the sentence of Jalosjos had been commuted and that the facility had received a copy of the commutation order signed by Ms Arroyo and dated April 30, 2007.
“The term of prisoner Romeo Jalosjos y Garcia is hereby commuted to a prison term of 16 years, three months and three days, and is required to pay P400,000 in civil indemnity and P400,000 in moral damages,” said the source, quoting the order.
The NBP received a copy of the order only after the elections, the source added.
The source told the Inquirer that as of May 30, Jalosjos had already served with good conduct a total of 13 years, five months and 15 days.
Good conduct
“He is also allowed what we call a good conduct time allowance, which means he might be even out sooner,” the source added.
Jalosjos was very happy to hear of the commutation of his sentence, the source said. The former lawmaker is being held in the maximum security area of the NBP, but prison authorities might transfer him to the minimum or medium security area.
“Our initial computation of Jalosjos’ term expiration is Nov. 18, 2008. But that is still an initial estimate,” the source said. With reports from Chona Galang, PDI Research and Julie M. Aurelio
However, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita was quick to clarify that the President did not pardon Jalosjos.
“Commutation, not a pardon. Commutation in the sense (that it) has been commuted to something else,” Ermita said in Malacañang.
Ermita said Jalosjos, 66, would not be able to avail himself of a pardon until he reaches the age of 70.
“So that when the time comes at the age of 70, as other prisoners are also considered for executive clemency, it (pardon) will be extended to him,” the executive secretary said.
Asked why, he said: “You know, that’s an absolute power of the President under the Constitution.”
‘Special treatment’
When reached for comment, Katrina Legarda, the lawyer of Jalosjos’ victim, replied in a text message: “Of course it’s special treatment. Maybe it’s payment for electoral services rendered [to the administration].”
During the May 2004 elections, Ms Arroyo won by a margin of almost 100,000 votes over opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. in Zamboanga del Norte province, the bailiwick of Jalosjos.
On Dec. 11, 2004, after complaining of chest pains, Jalosjos was rushed to a hospital. Weeks later his mother, Angelina, made an emotional appeal to Ms Arroyo to grant her son a presidential pardon.
Before the year ended, Malacañang said it would seek the Department of Justice’s opinion on whether Jalosjos should be pardoned. Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez later said that “every pardon issued by the President is a political decision.”
Back to ‘Garci’s’ rape of poll
Upset by Malacañang’s decision to commute the former lawmaker’s sentence, Legarda found the administration’s move consistent with its role in past controversies.
She cited the involvement of former Election Commissioner Virgilio Garcillano in alleged electoral fraud in favor of the administration, and the bank accounts of Jose Pidal, purportedly the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo.
“What can we say? This President has allowed a Garci (Garcillano), rapist of the electoral process, allowed a Pidal, a rapist of the economy. So she must have wanted to complete the cast of characters and allow a rapist of our children to do as he wants also,” Legarda said.
Jalosjos was sentenced to two life terms for statutory rape and an additional 8 to 15 years for each of the six counts of acts of lasciviousness.
Enshrined in Constitution
The power of the President to pardon prisoners is enshrined in the Constitution.
The President may grant executive clemency to prisoners serving their sentences after final judgment.
Besides commuting the death sentences of convicts to life in prison prior to the abolition of capital punishment in June last year, Ms Arroyo has made it a policy to grant executive clemency to inmates aged 70 and older.
She issued Memorandum Circular No. 155 in 2004 which states: “It is the policy of the Arroyo administration to extend executive clemency to deserving elderly inmates out of compassion and based on humanitarian grounds.”
She then directed the Bureaus of Correction and Jail Management and Penology and the Board of Pardons and Parole to forward to the Office of the President the records of inmates who were 70 years old and over.
Act of injustice
Dante Jimenez, founding chair of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC), said the commutation was a severe act of injustice against all rape victims in the country.
“He (Jalosjos) is not even 70 years old, which would qualify him for the Malacañang memorandum circular (on the commutation of the elderly),” Jimenez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a phone interview.
Jimenez said Jalosjos had to complete his life sentence so his victim could at least feel that she had been given justice.
The VACC chair also lamented that the commutation would affect the group’s drive against rapists and those who commit crimes against women.
“It seems that powerful and very influential people like Jalosjos have Malacañang’s ear,” Jimenez said.
“His (Jalosjos’) premature commutation would definitely send a wrong message to all those vigilantly monitoring countless unsolved rape cases in the country,” he said.
Jail gets commutation order
A source at the New Bilibid Prisons Tuesday confirmed that the sentence of Jalosjos had been commuted and that the facility had received a copy of the commutation order signed by Ms Arroyo and dated April 30, 2007.
“The term of prisoner Romeo Jalosjos y Garcia is hereby commuted to a prison term of 16 years, three months and three days, and is required to pay P400,000 in civil indemnity and P400,000 in moral damages,” said the source, quoting the order.
The NBP received a copy of the order only after the elections, the source added.
The source told the Inquirer that as of May 30, Jalosjos had already served with good conduct a total of 13 years, five months and 15 days.
Good conduct
“He is also allowed what we call a good conduct time allowance, which means he might be even out sooner,” the source added.
Jalosjos was very happy to hear of the commutation of his sentence, the source said. The former lawmaker is being held in the maximum security area of the NBP, but prison authorities might transfer him to the minimum or medium security area.
“Our initial computation of Jalosjos’ term expiration is Nov. 18, 2008. But that is still an initial estimate,” the source said. With reports from Chona Galang, PDI Research and Julie M. Aurelio