Saturday, November 24, 2007 Editorials: Freeing of convict in Aquino slay
IT is difficult to objectively discuss the merits of President Arroyo’s grant of pardon to one of the soldiers convicted for the murder of former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino and Rolando Galman considering the current political setup.
Former master sergeant Pablo Martinez is already 70 years old and behaved well in prison, two factors cited by Malacañang in the grant of conditional pardon.
Under normal circumstances, the move could have therefore been fully justified.
That is difficult to do under today’s factionalized political setup.
Getting back
The crime for which Martinez and 15 other soldiers were convicted was not only sensational but also involved a leader whose family has remained active in politics and some of whose members are openly critical of Arroyo and even called for her ouster.
The claim, therefore, that the pardon is the President’s way of getting back at the Aquino family is difficult to set aside.
Meanwhile, Malacañang’s move followed the pardon of former president Joseph Estrada, who was earlier convicted of plunder, prompting people to consider the freeing of Martinez as a scheme by Arroyo to ease criticisms on Erap’s “special treatment.”
No closure
What rankles for the Arroyo family is that, like Erap, the soldiers have refused to accept their guilt, insisting on a version of the killing that the court and a high profile investigative body created to look into the incident had junked.
This posture of the convicts and the Aquino family’s refusal to accept their version of what happened is among the reasons why there has not been full closure of the Aquino-Galman murder case and no mastermind has been pinpointed with certainty.
History’s verdict
With Martinez’s pardon, it is now possible his 13 fellow convicts still in jail (two have died earlier of natural causes) will follow his lead (Martinez was freed first because he was the oldest).
Which would mean that the judicial process will go full circle even before the real story behind the Aquino-Galman murder case could be uncovered fully.
Whether that is fair for Aquino and Galman, only history can tell.
