Manila, Philippines - The family of Eldon Maguan urged yesterday Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to cut off the special privileges of his convicted killer, Rolito Go, especially the use of cellphones and appliances inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa.
Eldon’s sister Grace informed De Lima that Go has three cellphones to contact his personal driver to take him anywhere in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
“Mr. Go is well-equipped and (a) big-time businessman even (if) he is inside the prison compound,” she said.
Grace said she also learned that Go uses a modern and expensive portable computer to transact businesses and contact his business partners and staff in his family’s money lending firm located a few meters away from the NBP outside of Muntinlupa.
De Lima must investigate reports Go has been using the NBP main gate to go out almost every day since February, she added.
Grace said officials of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) allowed Go to be a “living out” prisoner in March 2008 even if he was not yet qualified.
Then BuCor director Oscar Calderon granted Go the privilege to sleep outside the minimum-security facility, she added.
Grace said fellow inmates envied Go’s lifestyle inside the NBP before it was revealed that he was slipping in and out.
Go was convicted of the killing of Eldon Maguan, a De La Salle University engineering student, in 1991, after a traffic altercation in Greenhills, San Juan.
Go, then 43 years old, drove into a one-way portion of Wilson St. and shot Eldon, who was seated inside his car, in the head.
Eldon had just bought a pizza. He was 25.
On the other hand, Go’s family said he should be immediately released from prison because he is suffering from stage three colon cancer.
In an interview, Go said: “I go out six times a month. Last year, I go out almost every day for chemotherapy sessions.”
The Maguan family objects to Go’s release in June on grounds that he should complete his maximum 30-year sentence, especially since he had escaped detention twice, making him ineligible for clemency.
Grace said their assets inside the NBP had informed them that Go has frequently been going out of the NBP since last year to go to a casino in a Pasay City hotel.
“Go enjoys not only ‘living out’ but also ‘sleeping out’ privileges,” she said.
“He has his own hut. Actually, it looks like a resort house, while common prisoners are congested in small cells.
“Go’s life as a prisoner inside the national penitentiary is more than an emperor with several personnel and a head of state with cabinet members.”
Go’s kubol or hut has been complete with television, refrigerator, DVD player, electric fans, radio, personal bed and water cooler for the past 10 years, or even before he was moved out of maximum security four years ago.
The hut has electrical installations, suggesting the use of appliances, and a well-maintained bathroom with running water coming from a small water tank outside.
Sources have informed the Maguan family that high profile prisoners like Go who want to own a kubol would have to pay as much as P50,000 to NBP officials and gang leaders.
Sources also informed the Maguans that Go has an office of his lending business in Soldiers’ Hills in Muntinlupa and several apartment buildings near NBP.
Go has three cars, including the Toyota Vios he usually uses, all parked in front of his kubol (hut).
Penniless prisoners who cannot pay the high interest in Go’s money lending business clean and take care of his cars.