GMA pardon in Erap’s plunder case, conditional or unconditional?
ON October 25, 2007, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted executive clemency in favor of President Joseph Estrada. The document is reproduced as follows:
Is the pardon conditional or unconditional?
It is respectfully submitted the pardon is CONDITIONAL.
The law
1. The 1987 Constitution provides:
“Except in cases of Impeachment, or as otherwise provided in this constitution, the President may grant reprieves, commutations, and pardons and remit fines and forfeitures after conviction by final judgment.” (1st par., Sec. 19, ART. VII)
2. The Revised Penal Code provides:
“Other cases of evasion of service of sentence. – The penalty of prision correccionale in its minimum period shall be imposed upon the convict who, having been granted conditional pardon by the Chief Executive, shall violate any of the conditions of such pardon. However, if the penalty remitted by the granting of such pardon be higher than six years, the convict shall then suffer the unexpired portion of his original sentence.” ( Art. 159)
3. According to Black’s Law Dictionary, an absolute or uncon
ditional pardon, is one which frees the criminal without any condition whatsoever. On the other hand, it defines conditional pardon as one to which a condition is annexed, performance of which is necessary to the validity of the pardon.
4. In other words, if the culprit violates the condition of his pardon, the pardon is set aside and the original punitive sentence, which has not been nullified but only suspended, may be enforced against him (AQUINO, The Revised Penal Code, Vol. II,
p. 203, 1997 ed., citing Jose v. Santos, 75 Phil 612).
Comments
5. The pardon requires acceptance before it takes effect. Unless there is acceptance, the pardon does not take effect.
6. Why is acceptance required? According to constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, citing Justice McKenna, “the grace of pardon may be only a pretense… involving consequences of even greater disgrace than those from which it purports to relieve” ( BERNAS, The 1987 Constitution, p. 809, 1996 ed., quoting
Burdick v. US, 236 US 79, 90). 7. According to the Supreme Court, “a conditional pardon has no force until accepted by the condemned.