GABNET DENOUNCES SENTENCE COMMUTATION OF PEDOPHILE

PRESS RELEASE
CONTACT: Annalisa Enrile, National Chairperson
chair@gabnet.org; 619.316.0920

GABRIELA Network National Chairperson Annalisa Enrile today condemned the commutation of sentence given by de-facto President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to former Zamboanga del Norte Congressman Romeo Jalosjos.

?Pedophiles do not age out of pedophilia,? said Dr. Enrile, who is an assistant professor of Social Work at the University of Southern California.

Jalosjos was convicted of having raped an 11-year-old girl in 1996, in a hard-fought trial that saw GABRIELA Philippines mobilizing for justice for the victim. He was given two life sentences for statutory rape, plus an additional eight to 15 years for each of six counts of lasciviousness. The conviction was affirmed by the high court in 2002. With the commutation of his sentence, he will be available for parole at the age of 70; he is now 66.

?First Smith, now Jalosjos. Macapagal-Arroyo is turning the Philippines into a haven for rapists and pedophiles, if it is not yet that,? Dr. Enrile added. She was referring to the return of US marine Daniel Smith to the US Embassy, despite a Philippine court verdict of guilty and a sentence of 40 years. Smith had been charged, along with three other US marines, with the rape of a 22-year-old Filipina named ?Nicole.?

The government claimed that the commutation was part of Macapagal-Arroyo?s policy of clemency towards deserving elderly inmates. Jalosjos, however, seemed to have been an 11th-hour addition to a list of ten inmates pardoned under the policy. In 2004, Jalosjos? bailiwick Zamboanga del Norte delivered a margin of 100,000 votes to Macapagal-Arroyo over her rival candidate, the late Fernando Poe, Jr. Claims of cheating and fraud in that election nearly caused Macapagal-Arroyo?s ouster and continue to be a source of her administration?s instability.

In a press statement, GABNet said that "for a woman, Macapagal-Arroyo has the worst record yet on respect for women?s rights and human rights. She keeps a steady signal of complicity and tolerance for violence against women. She has made a mockery of laws and processes meant for the protection of women. By one order after another, by one mere signature after another, she manages to destroy gains made by the Philippine women?s movement through long years of struggle.?

Characterizing the attitude of the Macapagal-Arroyo regime toward women as ?atavistic and barbaric, replete with irony for a country dependent on remittances sent by women working overseas,? GABNet called for support for the ?Filipino people?s wish and desire to oust this fraudulent and anti-woman president.?