Aquino grants executive clemency to elderly inmates

President Aquino: ‘Highly dishonorable’. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III granted two more executive clemency to elderly inmates.

Aquino commuted the sentences of Arsenio Flores, 72, and Francisco Alimpos, 73.

Flores’ sentence of 8 to 14 years imprisonment has been commuted to 7 to 12 years in prison. He already served more than five years in prison.

Alimpos, meanwhile, has been sentenced to 12 to 20 years imprisonment but was commuted to 10 to 15 years imprisonment. He has health problems.

For serving the minimum of their commuted imprisonment penalties, they are already eligible to apply for parole. If they qualify, Justice Secretary Leila De Lima said they will be immediately released subject to parole conditions.

“We understand very well that the President takes the exercise of his constitutional power to, among others, commute sentences and grant pardon very seriously. After all, it means the balancing of at least three important state policies, that is, ensuring the delivery of justice and closure for the aggrieved parties and their family, the function of the penalties as crime deterrent and the promotion of the principles of restorative justice,” De Lima said Thursday.