Palace maintains ‘posthumous clemency’ in good faith

Even as it voiced sorrow over the incident, Malacañang maintained on Saturday the “posthumous" clemency President Benigno Aquino III granted to a “political" prisoner this month was made in good faith. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Aquino had no idea the prisoner, Mariano Umbrero, had died days before he signed the order granting him clemency. “The president (acted) in good faith, di niya alam, napirmahan ng pangulo. He was very proud of the fact nakapirma unang clemency. It’s very unfortunate nagkaroon ng ganitong supervening event," Valte said on government-run dzRB radio. She said there was no notice of Umbrero’s death to the Office of the President. “No one can control when one will die. On our part, we were not informed about his death," she said. For now, she said the best the government can do is to update its procedures to make sure this does not happen again. On Friday, human rights group Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP) criticized Aquino’s granting of clemency to Umbrero, four days after he died last July 15. “Apparently the President did not know he gave conditional pardon to a dead man – ‘Tatay Umbrero’ who died on July 15, 2011 – whose release paper was signed by PNoy on July 19," said Emmanuel Amistad, TFDP’s executive director. “It seems that Umbrero’s release papers stopped at a bureaucratic red light and did not move until he was dead," Amistad added. A day after Umbrero died at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) Hospital, TFDP and other human rights groups called Aquino a heartless president for turning a deaf ear on the appeal of Umbrero’s family for clemency. Umbrero was diagnosed with lung cancer (stage 4) in February this year. However, unfavorable condition at the national penitentiary may have aggravated his illness, human rights organization Medical Action Group (MAG) had said. Prison records showed Umbrero was sentenced by the Aparri Regional Trial Court for kidnapping and serious illegal detention. The sentence was affirmed by the Supreme Court. As of May 2011, Umbrero had served only eight years of his sentence. — LBG, GMA News