Aquino asked: Be more generous with clemency

MANILA, Philippines–President Aquino should be more generous in the grant of executive clemency to selected prisoners to honor Pope Francis during his visit to the country, said Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.

The President should exercise more leniency, “especially in cases where the guilt of the person is doubtful, or let us say for health reasons, or the person has reformed,” the senator told reporters on Wednesday.

Pimentel, the chair of the Senate justice committee, acknowledged the right of inmates to appeal to the visiting Pope to intercede on their behalf when he meets President Aquino on Friday.

“They’re hoping that the Pope will raise it with the President because that’s really the power of the President,” he said.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who earlier announced that Aquino was considering granting clemency to elderly and seriously ill prisoners as a gift to the visiting Pope, said the list of inmates recommended for executive clemency had been submitted to the Office of the Executive Secretary, where she said the list would be vetted “prior to submission to the President himself.”

47 inmates recommended

De Lima said “there will be an action on the recommendation for executive clemency in time for the papal visit.”

She refused to disclose the number of inmates in the list “pending the action by the Office of the President.”

The Pardons and Parole Administration (PPA) recommended 47 inmates for executive clemency in November 2014.

“The final say is the President because the President has the plenary and absolute power of executive clemency. These are just recommendations, recommendees subject to the approval of the President,” De Lima said.

De Lima said that included on the list were “old-aged” inmates—those aged from 70, 80 and even 90 years old—and inmates who are “suffering from serious, including terminal illness.”

She said the convicted road rage killer Rolito Go was not on the list, “even if someone had made the recommendation for him to be included.”

“But I disapproved (his inclusion) at my level,” she said.

De Lima clarified that this was “certainly not the last batch” of inmates to be recommended for executive clemency.

She explained that there were more names submitted to her but there was not enough time to vet the entire list, hence there were names not included in the list submitted to the President.

But De Lima said the PPA could “always again submit recommendees for executive clemency in time, for example, for the Holy Week.”

“Events like that are the best time to consider executive clemency,” she said.

Political prisoners

Political prisoners in a police camp in Taguig City have begun fasting ahead of the papal visit and wrote an open letter to the Pontiff to intercede for their release.

They included suspected communist rebels Andrea Rosal, Alan Jazmines, Tirso Alcantara, Loida Magpatoc, Emeterio Antalan and Leopoldo Caloza.

The London-based Philippine Jury Campaign (Philjury) has also written to the Pope to intercede with the President for the release of the “Abadilla 5,” the five men convicted of the 1996 killing of Lt. Col. Rolando Abadilla.

Philjury said the five had been “fighting for their innocence for 18 years,” and noted that the Board of Pardons and Parole had recommend their release in 2011, and that the Department of Justice had recommended a conditional pardon for them in 2012.

The Supreme Court affirmed in February 2011 the Court of Appeals ruling upholding the lower court’s conviction of Lenido Lumanog, Augusto Santos, Cesar Fortuna, Joel de Jesus and Rameses de Jesus.