It's final: Rolito Go will rot in Munti

It's final: murder convict Rolito Go will have to spend the rest of his life in jail.

The Supreme Court ruled with finality yesterday against Go's petition to reverse or modify the life term imposed on him by the Pasig City court for the 1991 murder of La Salle engineering graduate Eldon Maguan.

The high tribunal's third division said there was "no reversible error" in the Court of Appeals' affirmation of the decision of Pasig Judge Benjamin Pelayo, convicting Go of murder.

"The Court resolved to deny the petition for failure to show that a reversible error had been committed by the appellate court," the tribunal said in a one-page resolution that observers considered unusual.

Go, a businessman, was found guilty of shooting Maguan to death on July 2, 1991 over a traffic altercation at the corner of Abad Santos and Wilson streets in Greenhills, San Juan.

He was detained at the Rizal provincial jail but he escaped on Nov. 1, 1993, three days before his conviction was handed down. He was recaptured, however, in May 1996 and is now at the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa.

Last November, Go appealed his conviction with the Supreme Court. But his petition was said to be ambiguous as he was unable to present a fresh defense in justifying his killing of Maguan.

In his 58-page appeal, Go's lawyer Raymundo Armovit instead bashed the media, calling them "bloodthirsty." He said that through the media, "a bewildered and frightened Go became the unfortunate embodiment of evil."

Sources in the Supreme Court said that while he insisted that Go was a "victim of trial by publicity," Armovit failed to make up his mind on what he wanted the tribunal to do -- whether to reverse his client's penalty or reduce it by holding him liable only for homicide.

At one point, Armovit said Go "deserves to be acquitted because the evidence against him was not competent and substantial."

But he followed this claim with an argument that "if the evidence is not given its true weight and meaning, the most serious crime under the facts adduced is homicide and not murder."

Armovit apparently had anticipated the Supreme Court's consideration of Go's escape as a sign of guilt. He pointed out that the businessman was not wholly to blame for his flight since he was receiving adverse treatment from the media before he escaped.

"It was an unfortunate and grievous mistake," Armovit said, describing Go's decision to escape. He explained that Go had thought that the solution to an impending "failure of justice" was to become a "fugitive from injustice."

The lawyer concluded his petition by asking the Court to give Go his freedom or "allow a homicide conviction" which carries a lower penalty.