GMA can’t recall commutations — DOJ

President Arroyo cannot revoke the commutation of the death sentences of six kidnappers granted by jailed former President Joseph Estrada, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said yesterday.

"No cancellation of the commutation of sentence should be made unless it is based on justifiable reasons, such as fraud, on the part of the convict who asked for a commutation of sentence," Perez said.

He said he will have to recommend against any revocation of the commutation that Estrada supposedly granted although the death sentences on the six convicts were affirmed by the Supreme Court.

"We are scrutinizing all of those cases and so far we are not ready to recommend the revocation of the commutation," he explained.

Perez was referring to the cases of death row inmates Roberto Gungon, Benedito Ramos, Zoilo Borromeo, Rommel Deang, Melvin Espiritu and Nicson Catli who were found guilty of the 1994 kidnapping and frustrated murder of La Salle coed Agnes Guirindola.

Perez said government lawyers only have the precedent of convicted priest-killer Norberto Manero to bolster their argument but, they said, it cannot be applied to the six kidnappers because there is no violation of any condition of the executive clemency.

"The one precedent we have is the case of Manero, where the Chief Executive revoked the commutation of sentence, but only because of a justifiable cause," Perez said.

In the case of Manero, Estrada himself revoked the pardon he had granted after Manero was found to have violated the conditions of the executive clemency.

But, in the case of Gungon and his cohorts, no conditions were violated and a revocation would practically "upgrade" a life term to death.

The six convicts would have been the first kidnappers to be executed under Republic Act 7659, or the Heinous Crimes Law, after the SC separately upheld their death sentences between 1998 and 2000.

Their executions were scheduled for Aug. 25 last year and they would have been the first death row convicts to be executed since rapist Alex Bartolome was given lethal injection on Jan. 4, 2000, the seventh to be executed under RA 7659.

Estrada, however, suspended executions for the rest of 2000 in deference to the celebration of the Christian Jubilee Year.

Reversing her previous policy of suspending state executions, Mrs. Arroyo ordered Perez and the Department of Justice (DOJ) two weeks ago to review the six cases as part of her renewed drive against kidnapping syndicates.

The DOJ, however, said revoking Estrada’s commutation would present serious legal problems.

Instead of Gungon and his cohorts, two other kidnappers would likely be the first to be executed after Mrs. Arroyo reversed her policy against state executions.

The kidnappers were identified as Roderick Licayan and Roberto Lara who were convicted in 1998 kidnapping of Joseph Tomas Co and Linda Manaysay. They would likely be executed around August next year.

There are 93 other death row inmates who were convicted for kidnapping but the President said she would also consider prioritizing the execution of drug traffickers.

She said it wasn’t difficult for her to turn around from her previous stand and claimed she only agreed to a moratorium on executions amid calls from some sectors for a review of RA 7659.

RA 7659, passed in 1994, allows capital punishment for crimes such as rape, kidnapping, murder and drug trafficking.

Despite the law, however, kidnappers, have become "more savage" and murder their victims even after the payment of ransom, the President said.

A crime watchdog group has listed 93 kidnappings in which 202 people were abducted between January and September, including three Americans and 17 Filipinos seized by Abu Sayyaf bandits in May.

More than half of these 93 cases occurred in Metro Manila with victims mostly wealthy Filipino-Chinese. The group estimated kidnap gangs have collected about P141.8 million in ransom.