Rolito Go released, asks for Maguans’ forgiveness
“It was unintentional, please forgive me.”
Construction firm owner and released murder convict Rolito Go had this message for the family of a student he shot dead in a traffic altercation 25 years ago.
“What happened to his son was not supposed to happen, it was actually an accident,” Go said in Filipino in a radio interview, addressing the family of slain De La Salle engineering student Eldon Maguan.
He appealed to Maguan’s family for understanding.
“I hope they would also understand what happened to me… I hope they would understand the long time that I have suffered and find it sufficient,” he added.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Go, now in his late 60s, was released
from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) on Friday evening in compliance with a Supreme Court order.
A local court convicted Go for murder in November 1993 and sentenced him to serve a life in prison. However, he escaped four days before the promulgation of the court’s ruling and was re- arrested at a pig farm three years later.
As he was unable to physically return to the NBP to process his release papers, prison guards Bryan Lorenzo of the NBP Separation Center and Mario Tomagan of the Identification Section processed his release after receiving a copy of the court order.
The high court denied on Nov. 28 the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor)’s move to assail a Court of Appeals decision in August 2015 and Regional Trial Court branch 204 decision granting Go’s habeas corpus petition.
º Go is being treated for stage four colon cancer at the Manila Metropolitan Hospital.
Mass at NBP
Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle celebrated mass at the Our Lady of Lourdes Chapel inside the NBP Maximum Security Compound, along with restorative justice chaplain Fr. Bobby dela Cruz, as a gift to Pope Francis who turned 80 yesterday.
Tagle talked to inmates about compassion, repentance and forgiveness in his homily.
BuCor director general Benjamin delos Santos, who assumed the post last Nov. 29, attended the mass. He is reportedly the first BuCor chief to attend a Eucharistic celebration inside the prison compound. –