ZAMBOANGA CITY, 24 December 2007 — Police yesterday rearrested former Rep. Romeo Jalosjos a day after he walked out of the national penitentiary in Manila and flew to his hometown in the southern Philippines.
Jalosjos, sentenced to serve two life terms for raping an 11-year-old girl, was recently granted executive clemency by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo after serving only 13 years in prison.
He was given a certificate of discharge on Dec. 16, after which he stepped out of the prison compound to join his family for breakfast at a suburban home. He, however, returned to the New Bilibid Prison in Manila’s southern suburb of Muntinlupa upon learning that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez was suspending his release because he was supposed to be freed in 2009, when he shall turn 70, and not last Dec. 16.
Gonzalez explained that President Arroyo has issued an administrative order allowing the release of pardoned prisoners, when they turn 70, after undergoing the process for pardon.
Arroyo’s legal adviser Sergio Apostol, however, admitted that the president took back her release order amid an outrage, with human rights groups, women’s rights advocates, church leaders and politicians denouncing the decision as a payback for political favors.
Critics accused the president of favoring the wealthy by commuting their prison terms while letting thousands of poor ones rot in jail for crimes that mostly committed out of their being destitute.
Like a Hero
Despite Arroyo’s change of heart, Jalosjos managed to leave the national penitentiary in suburban Muntinlupa on Saturday.
News reports from Dapitan City in Zamboanga del Norte province said the wealthy politician was welcomed by hundreds of his followers like a hero. They also threw a party for Jalosjos, who was rumored to have supported Arroyo heavily during the 2004 presidential election.
Yesterday, police officers escorted Jalosjos to Zamboanga City, 260 kilometers southwest of Dapitan, where he would probably stay at the San Ramon Penal Colony until his case is finally resolved.
Jalosjos insisted he is a free man and his supporters blamed politics for the fiasco.
Defiant
A defiant Jalosjos said yesterday he would file illegal detention charges against the policemen who re-arrested him.
Jalosjos, in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, complained that he was a victim of “warrantless” arrest.
His 80-year old mother, Angelina, who was with him while he was having a medical check-up, appealed to President Arroyo to do something to free her son.
“My son is free yet some people in the government want him in jail,” Angelina said.
“He was freed. He is a free man. Leave him alone. This is all politics,” said Juanito San Diego, a supporter of Jalosjos.
Jalosjos is said to be eyeing this early to run for Congress again in the 2010 national elections. But with this latest development, his political plan may be at risk.
‘Hazy’
It was unknown why was Jalosjos allowed to leave the penintentiary despite a strict order from the government to hold him.
His flight details also remained hazy, with local officials saying Jalosjos took a private plane, while the Air Transportation Office (ATO) Operations Center said that the only chartered flight which left Manila for Dipolog City — the gateway to Dapitan — did not carry a passenger by his name.
The ATO said Jalosjos was not on the list of passengers who boarded the only chartered light plane that flew from Manila to Dipolog before noon on Saturday. The ATO withheld further details on the flight, including its passengers, aircraft type and owner. The plane left Manila around 11 a.m., roughly the same time Jalosjos was said to have taken a chartered plane to Dipolog, according to his assistants.
Justice Secretary Gonzales said he has also ordered an investigation.
Police Director General Avelino Razon said he has recommended that Jaloskos be detained at the Zamboanga penal colony instead of being returned to Manila because the Muntinlupa jail was no longer secure. (With a report by the Inquirer News Service)
