(UPDATE 2) Arroyo approves pardon for 9 convicted officers
By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
INQUIRER.net
First Posted 11:44:00 05/12/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has approved a recommendation by now former military chief Hermogenes Esperon Jr. to pardon nine convicted rebel officers who have expressed remorse for their adventurism when they plotted to oust the President in a shortlived mutiny in 2003.
Arroyo said this would be her “last act” as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines during the term of Esperon who was replaced by Lieutenant General Alexander Yano Monday.
After five years in detention and a protracted trial, the nine pleaded guilty to coup charges in civilian court last month.
Army captains Milo Maestrecampo and Gerardo Gambala were sentenced to life imprisonment while seven other junior officers were given 12-year jail terms. They were all stripped of their ranks and barred from re-joining military service.
They subsequently made a tearful public apology on national television, which Esperon and other defense officials said showed "true remorse."
"As my last act as commander-in-chief of AFP chief of staff Jun Esperon, I stood up as we were sitting down, while Alex [Yano] was still beginning his job as the new chief of staff, my last approval of General Esperon's recommendation is t approve his recommendation on the Magdalo soldiers," the President said in her speech.
Arroyo said Esperon has shown commitment "to let the wheel of justice roll smoothly."
"You have shown that no one is above the law even as you support and as you have repeated in your address, the support of the pardon of a number of Magdalo officers who have shown remorse and utmost potential for rehabilitation," she said, referring to the name the group of rebel troops went by.
In 2003, the nine officers led about 300 soldiers in taking over a luxury apartment-hotel in Manila's Makati financial district and calling on Arroyo and her top generals to step down over alleged corruption. Their rebellion was put down in less than 24 hours.
Twenty-one other officers are still on trial, while another is at large. Most of the ordinary soldiers accused of taking part in the uprising have been freed after serving time in military jails.
The young officers enjoy a certain amount of public sympathy, with one of them -- ex-navy lieutenant Antonio Trillanes -- winning a seat in the Senate in last year's election.
The influential Roman Catholic Church had warned Arroyo against granting the pardon, saying it would further encourage military adventurism.
Citing humanitarian grounds, Arroyo also last year pardoned former president Joseph Estrada, who was convicted of large-scale corruption and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In a separate interview Monday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the President might have signed the recommendation for the pardon. He revealed that his office submitted the document to Arroyo Friday.
"They can use their better reason to help them out of their situation," Ermita said when asked if the decision would help mellow the hardliners. "This is a very, very significant time that the President has announced it at a time that the one who was the architect who is General Esperon was able to give it to the President."
Both Esperon and Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro have said that a presidential pardon was not far-fetched for the nine junior officers.
In recommending the pardon, Esperon said that last year, Arroyo granted executive clemency to 53 other mutiny leaders that led to a commutation of their sentence. They were discharged from military service and were freed a month before their scheduled release on January 27.
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