Murderer Rolito Go on way out of jail

Remember Rolito Go? He’s that well-connected contractor who on July 2, 1991, after waving a pistol inside a San Juan bar, sped against one-way traffic and shot a youth who happened to have slowed him. Recalling raises goose bumps. On that fateful night Go casually alit from his car and fired pointblank at the head of Eldon Maguan, then aged 25 and graduating from De La Salle University. Days later he would turn himself in with an alibi of being in a car accident in faraway Ilocos. He even had a fake police report to back it, in spite of eyewitnesses who identified him as the shooter. Investigators cringed as Go arrogantly bribed reporters to support his bail demand. Ultimately detained to face trial for murder, he would be seen watching a Gloria Estefan concert with jail guards at a packed stadium. He stunned the public even more in 1993 when, nights before his conviction, he coolly paid off the warden and scooted out of jail to protest all the injustice done him. Only his recapture in 1996 calmed the city.

Well, bolt up your doors and keep your college kids home. For, if his influential friends succeed, Rolito Go will soon be out of prison. A plea for executive clemency already has been sent to Malacañang. And the way it is moving is reminiscent of Go’s disdain for truth and law.

A life termer may apply for presidential pardon after serving at least ten years. But he must meet certain conditions: contrition, good behavior; no evasion of service; and due notice to the convicting judge, prosecutor and victim (or family).

In a letter to Malacañang through his lawyers dated Dec. 2, 2005, Go claims to already have spent 13 years and 13 days as of that writing. "Mr. Go’s grievous mistake did not deter him from rehabilitation as well as livelihood projects for fellow inmates," the letter contended. "Incarceration has made him realize the gravity of his offense. There is nothing more he can do to make up for that crime, especially to the family of Eldon." Quoted was a July 22, 2002 memo to the justice secretary from Reynaldo Bayang, executive director of the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP), attesting to Go’s "excellent conduct" behind bars.

The lies readily surface. Go cannot have served 13 years and 13 days as of Dec. 2, 2005. He was first detained on July 8, 1991, escaped on Oct. 31, 1993, was recaptured on Apr. 30, 1996, and has been in prison since. That totals only about 11 years and 11 months, with about ten months out of bail not even deducted.

Go may claim clumsiness with dates and numbers, but he cannot feign contrition. To date, he has not apologized to the Maguan family, which still remembers the death threats they received every trial day and the way Go would sneer at them in court. Not that they care, but Go has not even paid the P3.6 million civil damages he must pay the Maguans as part of his sentence.

As for Go’s supposed excellent behavior, a news item had appeared in The STAR on July 20, 2003 about a raid conducted by authorities on cellblocks at the National Penitentiary. Entitled "Prison officials seize Rolito Go’s cell phone," the story stated that prisoners are barred from possessing such gadgets, much more the P400,000 cash Go was keeping. In another incident of excellent conduct, Go had a fistfight with another famous inmate, Ambet Antonio who had killed basketball star Arnulfo Tuadles.

The letter to Malacañang preceded BPP sessions on Go’s application. Only by chance did the Maguans find out that his case was being endorsed. That was when Judge Lorna Catris Chua-Cheng of the Marikina regional trial court, who had taken over Branch 168 from the convicting but now retired Judge Benjamin Pelayo, gave them a copy of her opinion of Feb. 16, 2005, which they received in April. In a letter to Bayang, Judge Chua-Cheng reminded the BPP of three salient points in Go’s case:

• the seeker of executive clemency had escaped from jail and eluded arrest for three years;

• there was no record of his having settled the P3.6-million civil judgment; and

• there was no indication that the offended family has been informed of the proceedings.

From there, the Maguans inquired from the lowly prosecutor of 1993 if he had been informed as well. That man happens to be now Ombudsman Senior Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio, always in the news for handling sensational cases like plunder by Joseph Estrada and ill-gotten wealth by the Marcoses. Irked at not being informed – Bayang had told the Maguans it’s not the BPP’s job to look for the prosecutor’s address – Villa-Ignacio demanded last Sept. 1 a stop to the pardon hearings until he has filed his comment. But the Rolito Express has long started.

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Yesterday’s was a strange presentation of arguments on the Piatco case at the Court of Appeals. On one side was Atty. Jose Bernas, pleading in behalf of concerned citizen Rep. Salacnib Baterina to stop government from paying P3 billion to a firm with an invalid contract to build and run NAIA Terminal-3. On the other was Solicitor General Ed Nachura, pleading to be allowed to hand over the money to Piatco.

The P3 billion is a mere down payment that a Pasay judge order as just compensation to Piatco for government’s expropriation of NAIA-3. Payment of the amount still will not allow the government to operate the terminal; it has yet to fully pay what Piatco has spent in construction and bribes: $565 million.

Bernas is questioning why government expropriated in the first place when it owns the land on which NAIA-3 was built. What the government should have filed, he says, was a case for eviction of Piatco from the facility when the Supreme Court voided its anomalous contract in May 2003. After that, he says, government can recompense Piatco for actual construction expenses of only $200 million tops.

Meanwhile, the Asia’s Emerging Dragons Corp. is reiterating its offer of $350 million to regain the build-operate contract that was originally its. If the government withdraws the erroneous expropriation and accepts the cash, it can pay off Piatco’s $200 million, plus constructor Takenaka Corp.’s back fees of $100 million, and still have a clean $50 million to keep. AEDC president Ismael Villa-Real said yesterday that if government accepts their offer today, they could finish construction and inaugurate by yearend. That sounds better than all these three years of inoperation.

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