PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has signed an order Friday granting presidential pardon to four communist rebels convicted of murder and kidnapping, the chief of the government peace panel said Friday.
“These rebels have long been recommended for pardon but the previous government did not sign the draft order to release them,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.
“We are giving them the justice they deserve regardless of their guilt or innocence. They deserve to be freed.”
Belo made his statement even as a consultant to the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the negotiating arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, said the urgent need to release the more than 400 “political prisoners” was not a precondition to the signing of a bilateral ceasefire with the Duterte administration.
The four prisoners who will walk free anytime today or Monday at the latest were identified as Martin Villanueva, Bonifacio Suyon, Dindo Absalon and Rico Bodina. All of them are farmers.
Villanueva and Suyom were convicted for kidnapping while Absalon and Bodino served time for murder.
It was former President Benigno Aquino who sat on the recommendation of the PCBREP and company, Bello said.
Three more suspected communist rebels serving time but awaiting final judgment are also due for release pending some requirements from the courts. A draft order has already been prepared for their pardon pending submission of their completed case folders, he said.
“They cannot avail themselves of a presidential pardon or executive clemency while their appeals are pending and awaiting final entry of judgment,” Bello said.
Bello, who heads the government’s talks with the National Democratic Front, said the convicted rebels had already served 18 up to 26 years in jail.
He said the case of more than 200 detained rebels who were up for pardon had already been submitted for review and approval by the appropriate government agencies “as part of the government’s confidence-building measures” with the NDF.
“But we have recommended the immediate release of 21 sickly detainees, three other elderly suspected rebels and one woman detainee,” Bello said.