PAO to pursue talks with Aquinos on detained soldiers’ pardon

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) that is assisting the soldiers convicted of the 1983 assassination of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr., vowed to pursue talks with Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to convince the Aquino family to pardon the detained soldiers.

Lawyer Persida Rueda-Acosta, PAO chief, said they are not giving up on Noynoy and expressed hopes that eventually, his heart will soften for the 13 other soldiers who are still inside prison.

“We earlier wrote the senator a letter asking for clemency for the convicted soldiers who are now all ill. We are not giving up. It is a good sign that former President Corazon Aquino has responded positively to our appeal,” Acosta said in a recent interview inside the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa.

The documents of the 13 soldiers have already been forwarded to the Board of Pardons and Parole for review so that they may also be eventually released, she added.

Former M/Sgt. Pablo Martinez of the defunct Aviation Security Command, who was among those jailed for the murder of Ninoy, was released from prison last Nov. 22.

Acosta said Martinez qualified for presidential clemency because he was already 70 years old and was the oldest among the convicted soldiers. Martinez is also reportedly suffering from hypertension, diabetes and ulcer.

The PAO said the 13 remaining convicts are “sickly and dying.”

Convicted with Martinez on Sept. 28, 1990 were Brig. Gen. Luther Custodio, Airman 1st Class Cordova Estelo, Capt. Romeo Bautista, 2nd Lt. Jesus Castro, and Sergeants Claro Lat, Arnulfo de Mesa, Filomeno Miranda, Rolando de Guzman, Ernesto Mateo, Rodolfo Desolong, Ruben Aquino and Arnulfo Artates, supposed gunman Constable Rogelio Moreno, C1C Mario Lazaga, and A1C Felizardo Taran.

The Supreme Court affirmed their conviction on July 23, 1991.

Custodio died of cancer in prison in 1991, while another, Estelo, was stabbed dead by another inmate in 2005.