Jalosjos will remain in prison as DOJ probes hasty release

(Updated 11:10 p.m.) Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez on Sunday said Romeo Jalosjos, former Zamboanga del Norte congressman, has been told to return to the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City as he ordered an investigation into the hasty release of the former lawmaker from the National Bilibid Prison. As of Sunday night, it was not known if Jalosjos heeded Gonzalez's order but GMA News earlier reported that the former congressman attended a Mass at the penitentiary’s chapel. Radio dzBB reported that Gonzalez insisted that the release order or "discharge certification" supposedly issued by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) was only a draft and thus was "not official." BuCor is an agency under Gonzalez's department. The DOJ chief was also quoted as saying that Jalosjos would not likely be released in time for Christmas, adding that he had stopped the processing of the former lawmaker's papers until the review for his release is completed. DzBB also said that Gonzalez ordered an investigation on how the supposed release order found its way to the media. He said the BuCor under director Ricardo Dapat might have to explain the matter. No nod from Arroyo A separate report by GMA News Flash Report on Sunday afternoon quoted Gonzalez as saying that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did not give a go-signal to the release of Jalosjos. The DOJ chief said Mrs Arroyo told this to him when they met last week. The DzBB report, meanwhile said that Gonzalez faulted former corrections director Vicente Vinarao for giving Jalosjos "too many merits" for an an early release. GMA News Weekend Report earlier said Jalosjos, who was convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl in 1996, was released from the NBP early Sunday. According to the report, Jalosjos’s son Bullet claimed that the former lawmaker left the NBP past midnight. GMA News also received a copy of Jalosjos’s supposed discharge certificate from the lawmaker’s secretary, Susan Arguelles. It was signed by Penal Supt. lV Juanito L. Leopando. Also, GMA News Flash Report on Sunday morning reported that Jalojos was released from prison past midnight. The report said Jalojos proceeded to his residence in M. Araullo Street, Katarungan village near the NBP. It said that at 4 a.m., Sunday, Jalosjos and his family attended a Mass in a church at the NBP. At Malacañang, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said he has been informed by Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez that former Zamboanga del Norte lawmaker Romeo Jalosjos has not yet been released. Bunye told Palace reporters that Gonzalez is the best person to explain the Jalosjos case. Chief presidential legal counsel Sergio Antonio Apostol said as far as he knows, Jalosjos, his former colleague in the House of Representatives, was only given a commutation of sentence and not a presidential pardon. Apostol said it is within the right of a president to give pardon or commute sentences. - GMANews.TV