3 women among 8 convicts pardoned by GMA

Three female inmates of the Bureau of Corrections will walk to freedom soon after they were granted conditional pardon by President Arroyo.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Victoria Launte, Marilou Maglasang and Zenaida Valencia were among the eight convicts granted conditional pardon by the chief executive.

The male prisoners covered by the executive clemency are Vicente Bagaforo, Franklin Eduardo, Danilo Fadul, Juanito Largo and Paul Palacio.

Early this month, Mrs. Arroyo also granted executive clemency to 12 inmates on humanitarian grounds.

The 12 were Damaso Etoma, Margarito Gajera, Salvador Lemos, Fernando Llamido, Francisco Miranda, John Louie Ong, Pablito Pascua, Michael Perang, Ruperto Piong, Cirilo Reprima, Herminio Roque and Julian Sadio.

The Palace did not cite the specific reasons as to why the 12 were pardoned.

Last July, Mrs. Arroyo also gave conditional pardon for nine seriously ill inmates convicted of drug-related cases.

Ermita said the government would normally not grant pardon to those convicted of drug-related offenses but the nine were suffering from serious medical conditions.

The nine were Rodolfo Andres, Antonio Comia, Andro Labajo, Andrea Larano, Antonio Lee, Fortunato Mejilla, Rogelio Milado, Alma Rizalado and Renato Salao.

Ermita said Mrs. Arroyo had been granting executive clemency to prevent a miscarriage of justice or mitigate whatever harshness might be generated by the strict application of the law on the inmates. — Aurea Calica