MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II announced on Tuesday, March 7, that 19 more inmates will soon be free after President Rodrigo Duterte approved their pardons and commutations of sentence.

Aguirre made the announcement during the awarding ceremony to 27 inmates – the first batch among the 127 total inmates earlier recommended by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to the President for pardon and commutations of sentence.

The justice chief also said that aside from the 127 elderly inmates, there have been 1,245 inmates who were granted parole last year.

“We are witnessing justice at work. We see that reformation is an option. As President Barack Obama once said, how we treat those who have made mistakes speaks to who we are as a society and is a statement of our values, of our dedication to fairness, equality, and justice,” Aguirre said. 

Aguirre made the announcement on the same day that the House of Representatives was set to pass on 3rd and final reading the death penalty bill, a priority measure of the Duterte administration that seeks to reimpose capital punishment in the country.

Of the 27 inmates awarded, only 4 were granted conditional pardon by Duterte and were able to go home on Tuesday.

Murder convicts Bienvenido Abagat, 73, and Roger Javellonar, 71, served 25 years in prison prior to their release. Their relatives from Pangasinan fetched them from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa. 

Abagat has not seen his children in 10 years, but all was forgotten when he saw them on his first day of freedom.

“Bagong buhay na. Maghanap ng trabaho na kung anu-ano, tulungan ‘yung mga anak na magpalaki ng mga apo (It’s a new life. I’ll look for any kind of job, help my children raise my grandchildren),” Abagat said.

Javellonar has the same plan: “Maghahanap ako ng trabaho para matulungan ko ang aking pamilya na naiwanan ko (I’ll look for a job so I can help the family I left behind).”

Another pardoned convict, 76-year-old Catalino Jao, is unable to speak and stuck in a wheelchair after suffering from a stroke.

Rafael Fabrigas, who served time at the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan, was not at the ceremony.

The other 23 were awarded commutations of sentence and will be able to go home in the next weeks and months. One of them, Rogelio Malagotnot, passed away just two days before the commutation of his sentence.

Aguirre said the DOJ and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) are standardizing the computation of good conduct and time allowances to fast-track the release of elderly inmates. 

Know the stories of some of those pardoned by visiting Rappler’s Facebook album. – Rappler.com