datasets.iitb.crawledDocs.yn_08Oct08_file_174 Maven / Gradle / Ivy

    | | | | | | | | | | SEARCH WEB INQUIRER Wed, Oct 08, 2008 06:34 PM Philippines Breaking News : Advertisement INQUIRER ALERT Get the free INQUIRER newsletter Enter your email address: 2 Digit Result: 31 06 3 Digit: 5 4 3 • 8 8 7 • 1 0 7 6 Digit: 1 2 8 5 8 7 Lotto 6/42 Winning Numbers: 15 40 08 03 01 27 P 12,108,029.40 CITYGUIDE Search the city for: Powered by: Affiliates Inquirer Headlines / Nation Type Size: You are here: > > > ARTICLE SERVICES RELATED STORIES GALLERY IS ROLITO NEXT TO GO? Rolito Go in his prison cell at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City in this file photo taken on Feb. 18, 1999. News News                 AFTER TEEHANKEE PARDON Will Rolito be next to go? By Christine Avendaýo, Arlyn dela Cruz Philippine Daily Inquirer First Posted 03:40:00 10/08/2008 MANILA, PhilippinesýAfter Claudio Teehankee Jr., can Rolito Go be far behind? Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Tuesday said Goýwho was convicted of killing Eldon Maguan in a 1991 traffic altercationýwas ýeligibleý for presidential pardon now that he had served ýmore than halfý of his life term. Also, Gonzalez said, Maguanýs family had accepted the damages ordered by the court. Gonzalez spoke with reporters after attending the Senate finance committeeýs hearing on the Department of Justiceýs budget proposal for 2009. Asked if Go would come after Teehankee in the line for a presidential pardon, Gonzalez said Go had submitted a petition for executive clemency. Go was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1993 for the fatal shooting of Maguan, an engineering graduate. Commutation would reduce his prison term from 12 to 20 years. He has served 13 years. Gonzalez said the Maguans had earlier refused to accept damages. ýBut lately, as I said, there seems to be some sort of a thaw because theyýve already accepted the payment of the civil suit,ý he said. Ongoing process Bureau of Corrections Director Oscar Calderon, who also attended the Senate budget hearing, said ýthere was an ongoing processý in Goýs case. He said Goýs petition was now with the Bureau of Corrections and the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP). Calderon replied in the affirmative when asked whether Goýs pardon was imminent. He said only the ýcomputation,ý or the ýtime served,ý was being awaited. ýOnce he has satisfied the minimum requirements as provided by law, we canýt do anything. The person is entitled, regardlessýý Calderon told reporters. As an aside, commenting on Teehankeeýs release in the dead of night, Calderon said the convict was supposed to have been released as early as Sept. 28, and took precautions because he was ýa sensational person.ý Graveside visit ýHe may have wanted to be discreet [and did not want to] invite the attention of other persons,ý Calderon said. In August, a woman carrying two dozen red roses visited Maguanýs grave at the Manila Memorial Park in Paraýaque City. She knelt and whispered a message: ýPlease forgive my brother. He is sorry, really sorry, and he did not intend to kill you. It was an accident.ý The woman was Julie Sy, youngest sister of Go, who is being held at the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City. The deadly traffic altercation between Go and Maguan became the symbol of road rage during the Ramos administration. Sy is the tireless sister who continues to follow up on her brotherýs case almost daily. Her SUV is filled with documents related to her brotherýs appeal for commutation of sentence pending at the BPP. Sy said that as early as 2002, the BPP had recommended a commutation of her brotherýs sentence. But every time the news came out in the media, there would be opposition, especially from the Maguans, she said. Payment of damages This was the reason Sy felt a strong urge to visit Maguanýs grave. She said she hoped she would get a feeling of forgiveness for her brother from the grave. On that same day in August, Sy said, she paid the civil indemnity amounting to P3.7 million mandated by the court for the Maguans. The payment was completed through a Marikina City court. ýI never planned to go [to the cemetery] that day, but something came upon me. The next thing I knew, I was driving towards Paraýaque,ý Sy said. Goýs sister also whispered something else as she knelt in front of Maguanýs grave: ýI told Eldon to please send the message of forgiveness to his parents or relatives through a dream. I believe that he heard me on that day.ý She recalled planning many times to visit Maguanýs grave and failing to do so for one reason or another. Once she attended the funeral of a colleague in her church choir in the same cemetery, and did not realize that she had parked very near the street where Maguanýs final resting place is located. She said she only realized it when she made the visit in August. Tearful Sy wept when she recalled the visit during the interview at a fast-food restaurant on Quezon Avenue in Quezon City. She said she was certain that she had made an otherworldly connection to the young man her brother had killed in Greenhills, San Juan. But the tears were for something else, too. Sy said the release of Claudio Teehankee Jr. had given her and her family a glimmer of hope that one day her brother would also be freed. ýIt gives us hope. I cried when I confirmed the news of Teehankeeýs freedom because for us, it means that after years in prison, years of rehabilitation, thereýs hope for freedom,ý she said. Sy is the closest to Go, and never fails to visit him on weekends. She said Go was often sick, and that the regular visits of members of his family gave him the strength to continue believing that he would be free one day. Sy recalled that when she and her eight siblings were young, ýwe were very poor.ý Go is the fifth child. ýWe were all living in one studio-type apartment in front of Arranque Market in Manila,ý she said. ýBut we all worked hard to make a mark in various businesses, and when Rolito entered the business of construction, I worked for him. He is very protective of me, of all of us.ý Copyright 2008 Philippine Daily Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. To subscribe to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper in the Philippines, call +63 2 896-6000 for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your subscription request . Factual errors? the Philippine Daily Inquirer's day desk. Believe this article violates journalistic ethics? the Inquirer's Reader's Advocate. 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