JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said Tuesday his department had recommended to President Rodrigo Duterte the grant of executive clemency to 134 elderly and sick prisoners.
He said the list he submitted to Duterte before Christmas included elderly, sickly and qualified inmates in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, in the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City and in the other penal colonies of the Bureau of Corrections.
“I already sent messages to the President requesting to expedite the action on our recommendation,” Aguirre told reporters.
He said he made his recommendation after the
Board of Pardons and Parole reviewed the eligibility of the inmates in the list.
He said the list included 100 inmates recommended for commutation of sentences, 18 for conditional pardon without parole, 14 for conditional pardone with parole and two for absolute pardon.
He said 14 in the list were elderly inmates.
He could not recall if the list included political prisoners that the communist National Democratic Front had asked to be released, but there were no prominent inmates there.
He said he was confident Duterte would grant the pardon as he promised during the campaign for the presidential election last year.
He cited Duterte’s promise to free inmates aged at least 80 and those who had spent at least 40 years behind bars.
Duterte pardoned actor Robin Padilla, a supporter of his presidential bid, in November on the recommendation of the Bureau of Pardons and Parole.
Padilla, Robinhood Ferdinand Cariño Padilla in real life, applied for absolute pardon for his 1994 conviction for illegal possession of firearms and sentencing for up to 21 years in prison.
He served three years at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa before being released in April 1997 by then President Fidel Ramos.
He then filed for pardon to be able to regain his civil rights, including his right to vote and run for public office.
Executive clemency or pardon, a power given to the President, pertains to reprieve, absolute or conditional pardon with or without parole conditions and commutation of sentence.
Parole is the conditional release of a prisoner from a correctional institution after the person has served the minimum of his or her sentence.