Gov’t protests release of Rolito Go

Rolito Go. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Not so fast.

The government will ask a Muntinlupa City judge to reconsider his order freeing road-rage killer Rolito Go from the New Bilibid Prison, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Thursday.

“I have directed the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) to promptly file a motion for reconsideration and, in the meantime, Go should not be let out. My instruction to both the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the OSG is to stand our ground that pending resolution of our motion for reconsideration Mr. Go should not be released yet,” De Lima told reporters in an interview.

“And we will have further remedies in case the motion is rejected by the court,” she added.

De Lima questioned Go’s claim he should be released since he had served his sentence and had earned several credits, including his being granted “colonist” status, which reduced his time behind bars.

“I’m not recognizing his colonist status because what I know is that it’s the president or the secretary of justice who gives that status. I’m questioning if it can be granted by the BuCor director. If the credits from his being a colonist are not taken into account, he is still not entitled to be set free,” De Lima said.

Colonist status, given to those sentenced to life imprisonment, carries with it additional good-conduct time allowance, according to the BuCor manual.

Go was sentenced to life in prison for the shooting death of Eldon Maguan, a 25-year-old college student, in a fit of road rage in San Juan in 1991.—Jerome Aning