SC orders release of convicted killer Rolito Go

The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the release from prison of Rolito Go, two decades after he was arrested to serve his sentence for killing a student at a road altercation in 1991.

In a resolution, the SC Third Division affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeals which sided with the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court’s ruling in 2014 granting Go’s petition for writ of habeas corpus.

The SC adopted the trial court's position that Go's sentence, which expires on Jan. 31, 2022 instead, should have expired on Aug.  21, 2013 upon deduction of lawful and proper allowances for good conduct, colonist status and preventive imprisonment.

“Therefore, after crediting his preventive imprisonment of nine months and 16 days, and the regular Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) under Act No. 3815 and Special Credit Time Allowance (SCTA) under Act. No. 2409 granted upon him, Go has completed serving his sentence of thirty (30) years on 21 August 2013, which he commenced to serve on 30 April 1996,” the SC said in a resolution dated November 28.

Release effective immediately

The Court said the release order was effective immediately unless Go was being detained for another case.

In opposing Go's release, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) said Go's sentence had neither expired nor was commuted.

The BuCor said Go's colonist status, which entitles a prisoner to additional deduction of prison term on top of the good conduct time allowance, did not carry with it the automatic commutation of his sentence because only the President had the power to do so.

But the SC said Article 99 of the Revised Penal Code gave the prisons director the power to grant good conduct allowances.

"The mandate of the Director of Prisons embodied in Article 99 of the RPC is clear and unambiguous. In fact, once granted, such allowances shall not be revoked," the SC said.

To rule otherwise, the SC said, would render Article 99 "as a mere surplusage and would unduly impose excessive imprisonment on inmates in violation of the basic right to liberty."

"The intent and spirit of the law in affording persons the remedy of writ of habeas corpus is to devise a speedy and effective means to relieve persons from unlawful restraint," the resolution stated.

Eldon Maguan shot dead in 1991

Go, a businessman, was convicted for the fatal road rage shooting of De La Salle University engineering student Eldon Maguan in 1991.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1993 but failed to immediately serve his jail term as he escaped from the Rizal Provincial Jail a few days before the trial court handed down its decision.

Go, who is now suffering from Stage Four colon cancer, was caught by police operatives in Pampanga on April 30, 1996 and was immediately brought to the NBP’s maximum security facility to start serving his life sentence.

In August 2012, Go disappeared from his detention cell. His relatives claimed he was taken forcibly from the prison, and that his abductors had demanded a P1-million ransom.

He resurfaced a day after he disappeared and was placed under PNP custody.

Go claimed he was kidnapped but released when he said his relatives did not have the money to pay for the ransom. — RSJ/NB, GMA News