It's back to jail for Norberto Manero Jr., but for more than 100 other convicts, freedom is just around the corner.
Malacañang announced yesterday that President Estrada will be granting conditional pardon to 113 prisoners on April 19, his 63rd birthday.
This developed as the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) prepared to arrest Manero and three others for the 1977 kidnap and murder of two brothers in South Cotabato.
Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora said the President will be granting pardon to prisoners convicted of various crimes as part of his 63rd birthday celebration.
"Traditionally, our presidents grant pardons during their birthdays or during Christmas and on Independence Day," he said, adding that a list of convicts now eligible for conditional release has been published in various newspapers.
The President has been criticized for setting Manero free last December. Jailed for 11 years for the brutal murder of Italian priest Tullio Favali in 1985, Manero may soon be brought back to jail for another murder case found archived in a South Cotabato court which was discovered last week.
NBI Director Federico Opinion said Justice Undersecretary Regis Puno has given him the go-signal to arrest the priest-killer based on a standing warrant issued by a South Cotabato judge in 1981 against Manero, his wife Leonarda, brother Artemio and a certain Larry Gonzaga.
The four were accused of killing brothers Ali and Mambawatan Mamalumpong in Barangay Kinilis, Polomolok, South Cotabato on Nov. 5, 1977. They allegedly tortured the brothers to death, with Manero even eating parts of the dead men's bodies.
The case was filed in court in October 1980 after the three suspects were arrested. However, Judge Pedro Animas decided to archive the case after the suspects reportedly escaped in 1981.
Animas, who is now dead, was able to issue an arrest warrant for the suspects before his death. He recommended no bail.
Lawyer Aurelio Maduramante, Manero's former defense counsel, however, is now insisting that the suspects in the Mamalumpong case never escaped from detention. He said his former clients were not even arraigned in court since the arrest warrants against them were never served.
"The court never had jurisdiction on him (Manero) since the warrant was never served," said Maduramante, now provincial prosecutor of South Cotabato.
"In fairness to my former clients, they never escaped from protective custody," he added.
Opinion said that if he were Manero, he would just surrender rather than be hunted by lawmen. "Perhaps the case can no longer be pursued," he said. "It is possible that the witnesses against him, just like the judge who issued the warrant, are dead by now."
Opinion has ordered NBI agents in Cotabato City to get a copy of the arrest warrant. The warrant will be served by the bureau's Special Action Unit to Manero and the other suspects.
Manero, who is known as Kumander Bucay, led militiamen in Mindanao in infiltrating rebel lines in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1988, he was arrested and convicted for killing Favali whose brain he allegedly ate with his men while celebrating the murder.
The President, for his part, said he will not think twice in recalling the pardon he gave to Manero if the Department of Justice (DOJ) will formally recommend it.
"If there are violations in the conditions of parole, I will recall it but we have to prove these violations first. If there is a formal endorsement, I will not have second thoughts. I will recall the pardon the soonest possible time," he said.
Kidapawan Bishop Romero Valles has urged the DOJ to recommend the cancellation of Manero's pardon on the grounds that he had deceived the President when he did not mention anything about the pending kidnapping with murder case against him.
Justice Undersecretary Ramon Liwag said the members of the Board of Pardons and Parole have yet to meet to discuss Valles' suggestion.
Manero's present counsel, Thomas Falgui, meanwhile, said the pardon the priest-killer received can never be revoked. He said that based on rules governing the granting of parole to prisoners, a pardon can only be recalled if the freed convict commits any violation after his release.
"Only if he fails to report to the parole board or if he has committed any unlawful act that the pardon can be recalled," he said. "So far he has not committed any. He may be arrested but only on the pending warrant of arrest on the archived case."
Falgui last talked with Manero by telephone last Friday. He said he advised his client to "just face the music."
"I advised him to appear before the Senate inquiry but with a counsel. I also told him to be consistent with his pronouncements that he is already a reformed man," he said. -- With Delon Porcalla, Allen Estabillo