Duterte pardons 27 elderly, sickly prisoners

MANILA, Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte has pardoned 27 elderly and sickly prisoners, said Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday, March 6.

“This is the first batch, these are 27, of those given conditional pardon and commutation of pardon,” said Aguirre in a dzMM radio interview.

He is set to attend a ceremony on Tuesday morning, March 7, to hand the signed certificates of pardon to the inmates.

There are a total of 127 elderly and frail prisoners for whom the Department of Justice recommended pardon from Malacañang. The remaining 100 may be released within the coming months.

A majority of the 100 are set to be granted commutation of pardon or a shortening of their prison sentences. Those with shortened sentences will still need to spend a few more months in jail before they are released.

“There are 100 more but we will explain that because most of them will be given commutation or shortening of sentence, but even if we shorten the sentence there are some months remaining.s Some will be freed next month, some in May, so we will free them batch by batch,” said Aguirre.

The recommendation to release the 27 prisoners was studied by the DOJ’s Board of Pardon and Parole and sent to Malacañang for approval.

The DOJ is still studying the possibility of adding more names to the list. 

Last November 2016, Duterte voiced his intention to grant executive clemency to prisoners aged 80 years-old or above and prisoners who are sickly.

“I am contemplating it, they are preparing it, all the old and sick, those suffering from rheumatism, those who can’t run, those 80 years old and above, those who want, those who have homes to return to, I will grant them pardon so that they can return home,” he had said. – Pia Ranada/Rappler.com