MANILA, Philippines – The family of murder victim Eldon Maguan said yesterday that a ranking official of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) received a P2-million bribe to help facilitate the release of Maguan’s killer, Rolito Go, from the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
Maguan’s elder brother, Ellis, said they learned from sources that the money was deposited in the bank in Quezon City early this month.
Ellis added that the PAO official promised Go’s relatives that “we will push and recommend to the Office of the President for Go’s release next month.”
The PAO official, he said, has appealed to President Arroyo to sign Go’s urgent petition for release as “the convict is now qualified for clemency and Go has been suffering long enough for that crime.”
Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta, sought for a reaction, said she believes the allegation is a mere “rumor.”
She told The STAR over the phone that the PAO, which she heads, has not received information involving the alleged bribery.
“His application is with the Board of Parole and Pardon. That’s beyond our jurisdiction so it would be impossible for a PAO official to handle that,” she said.
Acosta also challenged the source of the story to name the PAO official involved and provide proof.
Go was sentenced in 1996 by the Pasig regional trial court (RTC) to reclusion perpetua or a maximum of 30 years’ imprisonment for the death of Maguan, a De La Salle University engineering student, in Greenhills, San Juan.
Go has been asking for a presidential pardon and a commutation of his sentence, for the past three years.
The government put up a P700,000 reward for the recapture of Go, who escaped the Rizal Provincial Jail three days before RTC Judge Benjamin Pelayo issued his sentenced.
After three years in hiding, Go was rearrested in a piggery farm in Pampanga despite his alleged offer of a P2-million bribe to the arresting officers.
Late last year, the Maguan family said they learned that a ranking Malacañang official is reportedly facilitating Go’s immediate release before Mrs. Arroyo’s term ends in 2010.
Lawyer Jose Flaminiano, counsel of the Maguan family, claimed that the ranking government official is the godfather of one of Go’s sons.
The Maguan family also said they were surprised when officials of the Bureau of Corrections transferred Go to the NBP’s minimum security facility as a live-out inmate last March.
Flaminiano said Go should still stay at the maximum security facility since he had been serving his sentence for only 13 years and is not qualified to be a live-out inmate. – With Edu Punay