Probe on Rolito Go’s ‘special privileges’ sought

MANILA, Philippines - The family of road rage victim Eldon Maguan urged President Aquino yesterday to order an investigation of reports that convicted killer Rolito Go has been seen “in and out” of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City for the past four months.

Maguan’s younger brother Eliot said they were informed by Go’s fellow inmates that he is again enjoying special privileges by going home to his Quezon City residence instead of spending time in a private hospital to undergo chemotherapy.

In an interview last year, Go claimed that he had colon cancer following checkups at the Makati Medical Center (MMC) for a recurring stomach ache and constipation.

However, the Maguans learned that Go, a big-time government contractor, is sometimes escorted by a jail guard on hospital visits in Quezon City before proceeding to his residence for lunch.

He reportedly leaves the house late in the afternoon.

“He had been doing this for the past few months,” Eliot said in a statement.

A wealthy businessman, Go shot dead Maguan, a De La Salle engineering student, in Greenhills, San Juan in 1991.

Then 43 years old, Go just had a fight with his girlfriend at a nearby bakeshop.

His car counter-flowed on a one-way portion of Wilson Street, nearly bumping Maguan’s vehicle.

Go got out of his vehicle and shot Maguan, who had just bought pizza. Maguan was only 25.

In 1993, Go was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Pasig regional trial court.

But he bolted the Rizal Provincial Jail in Pasig three days before his conviction. He was arrested in 1996 at a pig farm in Pampanga.

In 2009, Go was moved out of the maximum security area in the NBP, prompting an outcry from the Maguan family.

In a minimum security area, prisoners are allowed to move around without escorts.

The Maguans alleged that even if Go was staying in the national penitentiary, his various business activities – ranging from money lending to mining – remained operational up to this date.

Aside from visiting his doctors and the office of his lending business in Soldiers’ Hills in Muntinlupa, Go also reportedly goes out of prison to check on his mining company’s operations.

In August last year, Go was again discovered missing from the NBP.

He claimed he and his nurse-nephew were kidnapped and brought to Batangas, but were released hours later.