DOJ: No legal basis to re-arrest Rolito Go

MANILA, Philippines — The Quezon City Police District (QCPD) has no legal basis to re-arrest convicted murderer Rolito Go as he was mistakenly included in the list of convicts freed under the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said yesterday.

Go is not among those who are the subjects of President Duterte’s order to arrest heinous crime convicts freed under the GCTA law “because there is already an order of the court for his release,” DOJ spokesman Undersecretary Markk Perete said.

“In the original list, his name appears. However, upon review of his case it seems that the Supreme Court (SC) no less, has in fact ordered his release. And therefore he should not be on that list,” Perete told reporters yesterday. 

Police officers of the QCPD’s Masambong police station visited Go’s house Thursday night to apparently arrest him after Duterte’s 15-day deadline for convicts freed on GCTA to turn themselves in lapsed. 

They failed to arrest Go as he is reportedly no longer in the Philippines. 

Go was convicted for killing De La Salle University student Eldon Maguan in a road rage incident in 1991 and was freed by the SC in December 2016 after it upheld resolutions by the Court of Appeals and the Muntinlupa regional trial court. 

 The lower courts voted in favor of a motion for a writ of habeas corpus filed by the camp of Go and his wife Elsa, claiming that he has served his sentence in August 2013 under the GCTA law.