SC orders release of Rolito Go

MANILA, Philippines - Saying Rolito Go had finished serving his sentence, the Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the immediate release of convicted road rage killer from the national penitentiary.

The SC affirmed the decision of both the Court of Appeals (CA) and a local court to grant his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.

The high court also denied the petition of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) assailing the CA’s August 2015 decision and that of the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court’s Branch 204 in April 2014.

“You are hereby ordered to immediately release Rolito T. Go unless there are other causes for which he should be further detained, and to return this Order with the certificate of your proceedings within 5 days from notice hereof,” Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., who heads the SC’s third division, said in the order.

It was addressed to former BuCor chief Ricardo Rainier Cruz III and former New Bilibid Prison (NBP) superintendent Richard Schwarzkopf.

BuCor director Benjamin delos Santos ordered yesterday Go’s return to the NBP from the Manila Metropolitan Hospital where he has been undergoing treatment for colon cancer.

“Yes, he will be brought back to NBP for processing prior to release,” Delos Santos told The STAR in a text message.

Diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, Go has been confined at the Manila Metropolitan Hospital (MMH) since March 2013.

In July last year, he was supposed to be brought back to the NBP hospital but was rushed again to MMH due to the lack of facilities and overcrowding in the NBP medical facility.

“Actually, Go has been in the hospital three years now. It depends on his doctor to decide if he is fit to be discharged from the hospital,” a source said.

The SC’s 10-page resolution dated Nov. 28 explained that “after crediting his preventive imprisonment of nine months and 16 days, and the regular Good Conduct Time Allowance and Special Credit Time Allowance granted upon him, Go has completed serving his sentence of 30 years on Aug. 21, 2013.”

In January 2014, Go pleaded for his release, which the SC in its resolution stated that “his original prison sentence which shall expire on 31 January 2022 instead should have expired on 21 August 2013 upon deduction of lawful and proper allowances for good conduct, colonist status and preventive imprisonment” according to law.

The SC agreed with the lower court’s decision that it is not only the President that recognizes partial reduction or commutation of sentences, but also the Revised Penal Code.

It noted that the Director of Prisons was given the power to grant good conduct allowance to implement the provisions of the Penal Code. – With Perseus Echeminada