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The holidays may have placed too much pressure on politician-convicts who, while serving their sentences had to spend the yuletide out of their cells, either “by force” or with “poise”.
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“I’ll be home for Christmas, you can count on me”
Commuted sentence on the bases of old age and unspecified illness, Romeo Jalosjos (Zamboanga del Norte), convicted child rapist and former congressman who has only served 11 years of his double life sentence, made his escape before Christmas. Although there had been earlier talks on his alleged release early this month, where in one TV news item he was even heard of holding on to that promised release, after his escape no one from the higher ups now say they know anything about any release regarding the child rapist. GMANews has that earlier story dated Dec. 6.
From double life terms of 80 years, Jalosjos’ sentence was commuted to a minimum of 22 years to a maximum of 27 years by the Board of Pardons and Parole; it was commuted further by PGMA down to 16 years after the recent congressional elections. His supposed released is in April 2009.
This time, after grilling and dismissing the Bureau of Corrections Chief Ricardo Dapat, who stated that Jalosjos do not have the release order yet, both Malacañan and the Department of Justice (DOJ) say they do not know of a Jalosjos release. ABS-CBN has a follow-up story.
Does a release order mean Jalosjos will not serve the remaining life sentence anymore? What of his unspecified illness? A life sentence or reclusion perpetua requires that the convict should rot in jail for his crime. Jalosjos was sentenced with two reclusion perpetua. What could be the ground for his release order?
It is worth to note that the child rapist belongs to a dynasty in the south that has propelled a winning streak for PGMA in the last presidential elections.
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Blue Christmas
Another convicted murderer with a death sentence commuted to life, as the death penalty had been abolished, also a former congressman, Jose Villarosa (Mindoro) left his cell in the New Bilibid Prison to stay in a private hospital for alleged hypertension and pneumonia at the Makati Medical Center before Christmastime and is to spend the New Year’s Eve with his family in a private room at the St. Luke’s Hospital in Quezon City, this time for a medical check-up.
The convicted murderer is the husband of House Deputy Majority Leader Amelita Villarosa, the same person who headed the congressional trip of more than 40 lawmakers who went with PGMA to Europe early this month. She was also the one who claimed the “cash gifts” distributed to lawmakers and local chief executives came from the Kampi (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino) group. Full story on ABS-CBN Interactive.
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A spade is a spade
The regular criminal who serves his sentence does not have the amenities of leaving his cell for a check up, let alone visits by his love ones on a regular basis. How can these lawmakers-turned-criminals enjoy their stay in a place where they should be stripped of all they used to enjoy? They must be treated just the same as the other guy in the other cell.
Seemingly, some lawmakers do not understand the value and merits of the people’s mandate that they use it more for their pleasure than for what they are expected to achieve for their community. These people took an oath to serve their office the best way they can, but they do the opposite. There must be a watchdog that checks on the ratio of lawmakers turning into criminals and lawmakers really doing their jobs or this nation will go to the dogs. On second thought, is it not yet?
