Wednesday, October 24, 2007 Malilong: For a full, free and unconditional pardon By Frank Malilong The Other Side
DEAR Your Excellency,
I am pleased to inform you that today I have filed with the Court a motion to withdraw the motion for reconsideration of my client, Pablito de la Cruz, in Criminal Case No. Ceb-0007 for Malversation of Public Funds.
Mr. de la Cruz was the barangay captain of Kansulig-ot in southern Cebu until he had a falling out with one of his closest friends over who should control hantak and tigbakay in their barangay. The ingrate ratted on poor Mr. de la Cruz, who was not only illegally ousted from office but brought to court and convicted on trumped-up and unjust charges.
My client may not be a saint but he did not steal public money. He had three wives (okay, one wife and two concubines), yes, but it is not his fault that he is good-looking and irresistible to the opposite sex. Moreover, this issue has been raised against him in many past elections but was ignored by his people who overwhelmingly voted for him.
Indeed, his only fault was that he loved not only his wife and paramours but most of all his people for whom he set up a foundation, with only a few thousand pesos from public funds as seed money, to help them send their children to school. The project naturally attracted many benefactors who willingly contributed to the scholarship fund.
Some of the contributions were later claimed to have come from dubious sources but how could have my client known that? And since the money of the foundation were not public funds, how could have Pablito been guilty of malversation?
My client was nevertheless convicted as expected. He knew from the very beginning that even before the first witness for the prosecution had said a word, his fate was already sealed.
We held the slightest hope that the Court will correct the injustice done to Mr. de la Cruz and reverse its judgment of conviction. I personally believe that strong grounds urging the Court to vacate the judgment of conviction were raised but legal luminaries have advised me that a reversal would be difficult.
The consensus in our camp is that the chances of the Court reversing itself are very slim.
I wish to inform Your Excellency that Mr. de la Cruz was adamant to the end, insisting on his innocence. But he realized that he really didn’t stand a chance with the justice system that we have and bowed to the wisdom of his lawyer (that's me). He wants to make it clear, however, that it wasn’t he but I who wrote this letter.
Your Excellency, my client and I believe that it is time to move forward and heal our sharply divided nation because Kansulig-ot is part of this nation What we need is a start of a healing process in the midst of poverty and terrorism.
I fear that Mr. de la Cruz’s imminent transfer to Muntinlupa could generate bad feelings on the part of many of his people. Passions on both sides could run wild. A period of prolonged fault-finding and recrimination would follow and it would be disastrous to the nation. Our republic needs recovery not revenge.
My client believes that he can do something for his barangay and people if he is free. He will continue fighting for the rights of his people. Nobody can stop him.
Therefore, in the highest national interest, to which Barangay Captain Pablito de la Cruz is willing to subordinate his own, I appeal to Your Excellency to grant him full, free and unconditional pardon.
