Execution of 3 kidnappers reset

The Supreme Court (SC) has moved the execution of three convicted kidnappers set on Feb. 12 to later this year, by which time a new administration would have come in, a prison official said yesterday.

New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) superintendent Venacio Tesoro told The STAR that a "reliable sector" furnished him a copy of the SC resolution late last week.

"I was able to confirm that the SC moved the date of the execution to Aug. 14 but I still have to check (today) what the basis of the reschedule was," he said.

Tesoro did not want to identify his source but said it was a group campaigning against the death penalty.

"The group tried its best to immediately get hold of a copy of the resolution," he said.

Tesoro declined to reveal the names of the three convicted kidnappers scheduled for execution. He explained that under the law, the condemned convict will only be informed of his scheduled execution on the day itself.

He stressed that the NBP should have been informed immediately of the new schedule for the benefit of the 20-man execution team.

"We have to prepare the hearts and minds of the execution team as well. We are on a heightened alert level when there are executions being scheduled, and then you’ll suddenly receive word that the execution date has been moved," Tesoro said.

He blamed the slow postal delivery system for the delay in receiving the SC resolution, and pointed out that only urgent notices are hand-delivered or faxed to the NBP in Muntinlupa City.

Tesoro cited the SC’s 30-day reprieve for convicted kidnappers Roberto Lara and Roderick Licayan, who were set to die by lethal injection on Jan. 30. The reprieve was handed down on Jan. 28.

"The SC’s order for the suspension of Lara and Licayan’s executions was faxed to us because that was very urgent," Tesoro said.

Earlier reports said prison officials were at a loss if they should proceed with the other scheduled executions after Lara and Licayan were given a reprieve while the SC merits a retrial of the kidnap-for-ransom case against them.

"We are waiting for instructions," Tesoro said. "But for the meantime, we have to continue preparing."

He refused to confirm reports that the next executions are scheduled on Feb. 6, when two convicted kidnappers, one drug lord and one rapist were set to die by lethal injection by lower courts. The identities of these convicts remain undisclosed, though Tesoro said the two convicted kidnappers are not the same ones who had been set to die on Feb. 12.

Tesoro said they have yet to open the envelope containing the schedule of executions, which is done on the first day of the month. "That’s the rule," he added.

Tesoro noted that if the SC denies a retrial for Lara and Licayan on Feb. 26 or earlier, the two convicts may be executed by Feb. 27.

"But we also have to clarify this because the order said 30 working days. And if this excludes Saturday and Sunday, then the execution will be moved to March 9," he explained.

President Arroyo lifted a four-year moratorium on the death penalty late last year amid a spate of kidnappings and other heinous crimes.

For this she received a dressing down from the Catholic Church during the third anniversary of her presidency last Jan. 20. Analysts said she had apparently been pressured by anti-crime groups, though Mrs. Arroyo has repeatedly stressed that in principle she is against capital punishment.

Mrs. Arroyo’s predecessor, ousted President Joseph Estrada, had suspended executions in early 2000 in deference to the Christian Jubilee Year, and after seven convicts were given the lethal injection in a span of a year.