Maguans want Go in prison till 2016

MANILA, Philippines - The family of road rage victim Eldon Maguan yesterday vowed "to fight in any proper forum" to keep convicted murderer Rolito Go in prison at least until 2016.

Maguan's brother Eliot, 43, issued the family’s statement following reports that Go's sister, Julie, has been getting in touch with "friends, kumpadres and ninongs (godfathers)" in the government for three months now to help facilitate the release of her brother this year instead of June next year.

The Maguans alleged Julie has been lobbying extensively with parole officials to immediately approve the petition for bail of Go, citing her brother is suffering from colon cancer.

The Maguan family appealed to President Aquino to reject Go's fourth clemency petition, saying that the convict should do time or spend all 30 years of his jail sentence meted by the Pasig Regional Trial Court in 1993.

Eliot said Go has tried to evade sentence twice and he should finish his jail sentence so their family would be "given justice for the death of Eldon."

The Maguan family is hoping that Aquino would give a favorable response on their request, saying his family suffered the same fate when his father, the late former senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, was assassinated in 1983.

The Maguan family described as a poorly written "zarzuela" the claim of Go that he was kidnapped by four men whom he claimed had posed as agents of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Go and his nephew were released later without paying the P1-million ransom.

The Maguans said they were informed by their friends at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) that Go frequently leaves the prison compound since last year and goes to a casino in Pasay City instead of to his doctor in a hospital in Makati City for medical checkup.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was informed that Go had been gone for two days and one night, before he was reported missing, and was just forced to come up with his kidnapping story after this was uncovered apparently to shield his contacts in the NBP.

De Lima dismissed the claims of Go that government agents kidnapped him.

Sources informed the Maguan family that Go was seen playing baccarat in a VIP room of the hotel Wednesday and Friday prior to his "escape" last Aug. 14.

One of the sources described Go as "a high roller" who bets heavily at the casino.

NBP officials, who refused to be named, also revealed Go was believed to have been carrying more than P50,000 cash the day before his disappearance last Tuesday night.

The Maguan family’s lawyer, Jose Flaminiano, said Go's huge financial capacity is "very possible and achievable" because they were informed years ago by their assets that the convict is earning millions of pesos through his money lending business.

Go was involved in a financing business, aside from construction, before he was convicted for the death of Maguan, a De La Salle University engineering student, in 1991.

He is reportedly a big-time cockfight aficionado and involved in raising expensive fighting cocks.

A construction magnate, Go had come from a fight with his girlfriend at a bakeshop in Greenhills, San Juan City when the killing of Maguan happened.

He entered Wilson Street – a one-way street – in the opposite direction and went against the traffic and nearly bumped Maguan's vehicle, sparking one of the country’s most sensational road rage incidents.

Flaminiano was informed by Go's fellow prisoners that the convict started his money lending business in 1998 or two years after he was brought to the NBP.

Go's clients include his fellow inmates, jail guards and personnel who borrow cash for their daily expenses like food, laundry soap and other necessities, Flaminiano said.

Former NBP director Dionisio Santiago confirmed Go was running a money lending business and a kerosene distribution center inside the facility, which he dismantled when he assumed his post.

Santiago said he ordered the dismantling of the huge kerosene tank maintained by Go and also imposed strict restriction on the entry of beer inside the NBP.