Leviste, 34 others granted parole

MANILA, Philippines (4th UPDATE) – Former Batangas Gov Jose Antonio Leviste and 34 other prisoners have been granted parole by the government, a prisons official told ANC, the ABS-CBN News Channel, on Friday, December 6.

Supt Venancio Tesoro, OIC of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), told ANC that Leviste may be freed anytime following the granting of a parole to him. Leviste is the former husband of Senator Loren Legarda.

Venancio said Leviste had already served the minimum jail term meted on him – a minimum of 6 years and a maximum of 12 years. He said Leviste’s age, 73, was also a consideration.

Manuel Co, head of the Parole and Probation Administration, clarified parole means “temporary liberty.” He told ANC: “He is under the continuous custody of the state.”

Co also said the family of De las Alas did not object to the parole. (Leviste was freed at 11:20 am on Friday.)

Heated argument

In 2009, a Makati court found Leviste guilty of homicide for killing his longtime employee, Rafael de las Alas, in Leviste’s office at the LPL Tower in Makati on Jan 12, 2007. Probers said Leviste repeatedly shot de las Alas in the head.

He was first detained in 2007 in a local jail, the year he shot de las Alas. Upon his conviction in 2009, he was brought to the NBP.

Co said the basis for the parole included the time Leviste spent in a local jail, which makes his detention a total of 6 years.

The prosecution initially charged Leviste with murder but the court convicted him for the lesser offense of homicide. Makati Regional Trial Court 150 Judge Elmo Alameda ruled in his January 2009 verdict that the shooting to death of de las Alas did not appear to be premeditated.

In May 2011, the National Bureau of Investigation filed a complaint of evasion of service of sentence against Leviste.

This was after an ABS-CBN public affairs program exposed that Leviste was allowed to freely leave the NBP compound in Muntinlupa 3 times that year.

A fact-finding panel of the justice department found that NBP officials gave Leviste sleep-out privileges without the approval of the Bureau of Corrections. The justice department later dismissed the officials who approved these privileges. – Rappler.com