Press Release
March 9, 2009

RP penal system based on reform -- Enrile

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said today that the release of all those convicted in the Aquino-Galman murder case should be seen in the light of the Philippine justice and penal system being based on the reform of convicted criminals and not on vendetta.

"Over two decades of being behind bars is no laughing matter for these people. They had already seen the best years of their lives pass them by. And it's not like justice will be served more if they are kept in jail for a longer time," said Enrile.

He stressed that the granting of executive clemency to convicts is vested in the Office of the President and is exercised only after proper appreciation of the individual cases by recommending bodies. Enrile noted that a couple of the convicts in the case had already died in prison.

Convicts are jailed as punishment and to keep them away from the public until such time that they are reformed, Enrile said, stressing that "the primary concept is that no man, no matter what crime he may have committed, is beyond reform."

Enrile said this is also the reason why capital punishment is being rejected by civilized societies as it is based on revenge.

On claims that the executive clemency was granted to the Aquino-Galman convicts to spite the Aquino family, Enrile dismissed them as mere "conjectures that would not stand scrutiny considering the many other grants of executive clemency each year."

"Political color is being added to what may be an otherwise routine exercise of one of its prerogatives by the Office of the President," Enrile said.

News Latest News Feed