Manero pardon won't be revoked

Brushing aside public condemnation of convicted killer Norberto Manero Jr.'s release, Malacañang said yesterday the presidential pardon would not be revoked.

Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said President Estrada met with the Board of Pardons and Parole which had pushed for Manero's pardon. The board stood by its recommendation.

Manero, one of eight people jailed for the 1985 murder of Italian Catholic priest Tullio Favali, was freed from the New Bilibid Pri-sons last December after his name was included in a list of 500 convicts Mr. Estrada pardoned in the spirit of Christmas.

Manero was the leader of a group of anti-communist vigilantes who gunned down Favali in Tulunan, North Cotabato. Court records showed the gunmen ate bits of Favali's brain in a ceremony of ritualistic cannibalism before horrified onlookers.

"I have been asked by the President to inform you that in a meeting this morning, the Board of Pardons and Parole has decided to sustain its original recommendation," Zamora told reporters at a news conference.

Zamora pointed out that as long as Manero complies with parole conditions, the pardon will stand.

Justice Secretary Serafin Cuevas said Mr. Estrada had not violated any law in pardoning Manero, who according to press reports had boasted of killing 200 people while helping the government fight communist and Muslim rebels in the South in the 1980s.

"It is the position of the Department of Justice (DOJ) that there is no violation against the Constitution. There is no law that has been violated by the grant of this conditional pardon," Cuevas told reporters yesterday.

The President on Thursday ordered his legal advisers to study the possibility of revoking the pardon after he was criticized by Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin.

Sin had said the ex-convict was a possible "danger to society" and warned that he could kill again, starting with the prosecution witnesses who had helped send him to jail.

Church leaders have urged the President to put Manero back in jail, saying the ex-convict's mere presence was sowing "fear" in a Mindanao diocese.

"We appeal for the urgent reconsideration of the pardon given to Norberto Manero alias 'Kumander Bucay' and to deny the application for pardon being considered for the release of Edilberto Manero and Elpidio Manero, his brothers and co-conspirators," Bishop Romulo Valles said in an open letter to Mr. Estrada.

Valles, the bishop of Kidapawan, near Tulunan in North Cotabato, said the release of Manero was hampering the prosecution of Arsenio Villamor, the eighth suspect and alleged mastermind in the Favali murder case.

Seven of the killers were jailed for life in 1987 but their sentences were reduced to 24 years by Mr. Estrada's predecessor, Fidel Ramos. The eighth suspect was arrested in 1998.

"The release of the Manero brothers causes so much fear that the witnesses are unable to testify," Valles said.

He also criticized Mr. Estrada's moral judgment.

"Why can such notorious criminals be released without any notice to the aggrieved parties or to the public?" Valles asked. "We do favor the release of prisoners who are no longer a threat to society, but not those who can cause great alarm for many people."

The Rome-based Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), the order to which Favali belonged, expressed its "deepest shock" at the presidential clemency.

PIME chided the government for failing to inform the order of the pardon and its implications "for all our priests working in North Cotabato."

"We believe that the release of Mr. Manero could be a dangerous sign of alarm to be added to the fears and insecurities of our people," said Fr. Sandalo, the mission's regional superior.

For his part, Manero said it was his brother who actually killed the Italian priest on April 11, 1985.

In a radio interview, the paroled convict said the death of Fr. Favali was a result of an "accident" emanating from a dare.

"We were conducting para-military operations when one of my men became angry over the priest's parked motorcycle and said he would burn it. I answered that if he wanted to, he could. And he did," Manero told dzMM.

He pointed out that Fr. Favali was furious when he discovered what had happened to his motorcycle.

"Suddenly there was a gunshot, and when I turned my back, the priest was already sprawled on the ground in a pool of blood," Manero said.

He denied having strewed pieces of the dead man's brain.

"My family does not practice cannibalism because we are also civilized individuals," the convict said.

Manero likewise denied that he was given a conditional pardon so that he could be used to liquidate persons critical to the President.

He stressed that he had no intentions of going after those who testified against him.

"The Kumander Bucay that you know is dead. I want to change my life because I already suffered enough," Manero said.

The Senate committee on justice and human rights begins on Monday an inquiry into Manero's pardon following the filing of resolutions by Senate President Blas Ople and Senate Majority Leader Franklin Drilon.

Ople said the probe will try to pinpoint responsibility in the issuance of the conditional pardon.

"While the President's pardoning power is plenary under the Constitution, its exercise is still subject to law," he pointed out.

The Senate president said those invited to the hearings include Zamora, Cuevas, and members of the parole board.

Church and local officials in North Cotabato are also expected to attend Monday's hearings.

Ople said the inquiry also seeks to review the law on parole and pardon as well as recommend possible amendments.

Panel chairman Sen. Renato Cayetano expressed optimism that the probe will be able to determine the circumstances behind the inclusion of Manero in the list of convicts up for pardon.

He said the panel hopes to come up with measures to guarantee that the fiasco does not happen again.

Meanwhile, Rep. Apolinario Lozada (Lakas, Negros Occidental) pointed out that the absence of clear intentions on the part of the President meant that no pardon was extended.

"No presidential intent, no pardon," the lawmaker said.

Lozada, a member of the House committee on Muslim affairs, said it is quite understandable that Mr. Estrada may have inadvertently signed Manero's pardon in view of the hundreds of documents needing his signature.

"Given this, he may or may not have intended to forgive the criminal. But to extend a pardon, intent must be present. If not, the document is meaningless, it is void," he explained.

Maguindanao Rep Simeon Datumanong said there should have been a more serious investigation before Manero was allowed to be set free.

Party-list Rep. Renato Magtubo said Manero's pardon contradicted the government's peace and order campaign.

"By setting free a convicted murderer, the administration has stained it own peace and order drive," Magtubo said. --