Rev. Benedick R. dela Cruz ’05 was ordained a priest of the Congregacao de Sao Carlos (CSC), a Filipino congregation of Old Catholic Clergy, at the Holy Family Parish in Imus, Cavite last July 4. Three other Upsilonians were previously ordained priests of the Roman Catholic Church. Congratulations and best wishes Father Brod!
The Upsilon Sigma Phi Alumni Association (USPAA) and Resident Fellows are sponsoring the book launch of Bintao: Ang Buhay at Kamatayan ni Wenceslao Q. Vinzons on Friday, June 19, 2009, 5:30 p.m. at Balay Kalinaw, U.P. Diliman. The book includes the three-act historical play with the same title by Efren M. Yambot ’60, together with his own historical notes and a brief biography of Wenceslao Q. Vinzons ’30. Senator Richard J. Gordon ’68 wrote the foreword for the book.
The play Bintao was staged as a musical at the University of the Cordilleras in Baguio in January 2008, with Leonides C. Bautista ’62 as producer. The University of Baguio and University of the Cordilleras sponsored the same, in commemoration of the centennial of the University of the Philippines.
Vinzons was editor of the Collegian and president of the U.P. Student Council during his undergraduate years. He later became the youngest delegate to the 1934 Constitutional Convention, and outstanding governor and congressman of his province Camarines Norte. He founded Young Philippines, the only genuine opposition party during the heydays of President Quezon. Vinzons also founded and headed the Vinzons guerillas, the first guerilla group in the Philippines to resist the Japanese Imperial Army.
The play Bintao is the second of two full-length historical plays by Yambot to be produced. The first was Macario Sakay: Kilabot ng Sierra Madre, which was staged by the Upsilon Sigma Phi in 1972 at Philamlife Theater in Manila, and Abelardo Theater in Diliman.
The Philippine Olympic Committee (POC) on May 27 decided to give the national athletes full and direct representation to the countrys top sports governing bodys general assembly and executive board. 2004 Athens Olympian Raphael Matthew “Timmy” Chua ’02 was appointed to the executive board. Chua was chosen by peers at the POC Athletes’ Commission to represent the athletes in all POC affairs until the 2012. Congratulations brod!
Dr. Gemino H. Abad ’55, University Professor Emeritus in English and Comparative Literature, is this years recipient of Italys most coveted literary prize, the Premio Feronia Citta di Fiano 2009 under the foreign author category. The prize will be conferred on July 11 during the Nomination Ceremony at the historic Castle of Fiano Romano outside Rome. The Premio Feronia was established 16 years ago by the Associazione Culturale Allegorein and gives awards in four categories: poetry, narrative, criticism and a special award to a foreign author. Congratulations brod!
Several resident fellows graduated this year with distinction. Lordan Lorenz S. Angeles ’06 (BS Psychology) graduated magna cum laude. Jan G. Orocay ’06 finished cum laude. Francis Carlo T. Argente ’98 (BS Landscape Architecture) received the Philip Recto Design Excellence Award for Best Thesis in Landscape Architecture. Marco Gregorio L. Lainez ’05 received the Order of the Purple Feather medal, the official honor society of the College of Law. While former Illustrious Fellow Michael Arthur C. Sagcal ’98 received the Gonzalo Gonzales Award for Most Outstanding Law Intern, Prize for the Best Paper in Environmental Law and a citation for being an editor of the Philippine Law Journal. Outgoing Diliman USC chairperson Herminio C. Bagro III ’02 (BA Philosophy cum laude ’05) got a citation for leadership as head of the USC.
Other graduates from the College of Law are Anthony Raphael V. Jacoba ’96, former Manila and Diliman USC councilor Paolo Marco R. Mapula ’02, and Anthony M. Gonzales ’03. Former Illustrious Fellow Richard Paul C. Sanchez ’99 and Marzenn B. Igpuara ’06 received their MBA degrees. Among those who graduated in UP Los Banos are former Illustrious Fellows Ziegfried M. Manahan ’01 and Lauren Ralph V. Ople ’05, and former UPLB Perspective editor Samuel Jay C. Pasia ’05.
A testimonial fellowship was held last Thursday for Manahan, Ople, Pasia and twelve other graduating fellows from UP Los Banos namely: Edwin Emilmar P. Berganio, Jr. ’01, Sonny Ray J. Frany ’01, Lester R. Ramos ’01, Christian C. Collado ’03, Aldrin H. Garganta ’03, Jayson M. Punzalan ’03, John Christopher I. Callanta ’04, Daniel J. Macusi ’04, Alden M. Monzon ’04, Dunn Xendrick P. Vergara ’04, Karl Genesis F. Batin ’05, and Arnan B. Araza ’06.
In UP Diliman, the following also received their diplomas: Joshua Michael P. Benitez ’04, Venson John R. Domingo ’04, UAAP gold medalists Raphael Evan A. Grabador ’04 and Mark Wilson O. Ramiro ’04, former swim team captain Jonathan B. Villagracia ’04, former PALS president Jericho C. Cruz ’04, Ron Daniel D. Bautista ’05, former JMA vice president Lauro Francis R. Guevara, Jr. ’05, former NCPAG-SC administrator Jonathan F. Gino ’06, Jonathan B. Punzal ’06, and Johann R. Vicencio ’06. While in UP Manila, Alexander H. Tuliao ’00 (Medicine), former Manila USC councilors Tristan Jegar P. Catindig ’06 and Justin Xavier C. Rivera ’06, and John Fidel N. Labayen ’06 marched as well this year.
This semester Benitez, Guevara, Julio Miguel C. Galvez ’05, former JMA vice president Gregorio Angelo C. Villar ’05 and incoming Diliman USC councilor Mario C. Cerilles, Jr. ’07 are University Scholars. Galvez, a third year business economics major, finishes this semester with a GWA of 1.0786. In the College of Medicine, Lemuel M. Narcise ’98 is a College Scholar from the previous semester. Other College Scholars are Jacoba (Law), Catindig, Labayen, Roy Samuel S. Co ’08, and Tomas Julian R. Santos ’09. In the College of Law, Jerwin James C. Lim ’07 is in the Order of the Purple Feather. Congratulations brods!
Independent Senator Francis ‘Kiko’ Pangilinan ’81 today filed Resolution No. 969 directing the proper Senate Committee to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the Procedure of the Board of Pardons and Parole in granting executive clemency to the mastermind of the Cochise-Beebom double murder case.
Rodolfo Manalili, convicted of the gruesome murders, was granted executive clemency by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo last March 26, 2009 commuting the the double life sentence he was served bt the Quezon city Trial Court and later affirmed by the Supreme Court.
The resolution says that while the power to grant executive clemency is provided under the Constitution, it should involve the exercise of sound judgment and discretion on the part of the President.
Pangilinan adds that there should have been, at the very least, prior exhaustive consultation with the family and relatives of the victims, giving them an opportunity to express their opinion on the issue.
MANILA, Philippines–Fraternity brothers of the University of the Philippines law student who along with his girlfriend was slain by hired killers in 1989 have asked President Macapagal-Arroyo to reconsider her order decreasing the jail term of the convicted mastermind.
In a recent joint statement, the Upsilon Sigma Phi and the fraternitys alumni association said the commutation of the double-life term of Rodolfo Manalili would allow his release in a few years and threaten the safety of witnesses against him.
The results of the 2008 Bar Examinations came out last week. Congratulations to our new lawyers: former Camarines Sur representative Felix William B. Fuentebella ’93, Melvin Cydrick M. Bughao ’96 and Augusto Leon A. Macatangay ’97!
Early this week, news broke on the pardon granted by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to Rodolfo M. Manalili who masterminded the abduction and murder of Ernesto Cochise Bernabe II and Ana Lourdes Beebom Castanos in April 25, 1990.
In a years time, we would be commemorating the abduction, rape and murder of these two young and promising students and future leaders our nation will never have. After creating a maelstrom that saw the enactment of the death penalty and the creation of the witness protection program brought about by public outrage and condemnation of this crime, our President, in one stroke of her mighty pen appends closure to Cochise and Beeboms deaths by rewarding the killers and re-opening the yet unhealed wounds it has brought to Bernabes and Castanos families, friends and colleagues.
Because Press Secretary Cerge Remonde is aware of the utter heinousness of Manalilis crime, he hides under the oft repeated chorus that the recent pardons is yet just another part of the ministerial duties of the President. That murderers, rapists, and grafters are freed after spending time for their crimes while alleviated by credible good behaviour is purely hogwash. Nothing can be more revolting when our officials coax our anger with arrogance treating us like children. We are even led to the self induced refrain that these actions are part of the corrective nature of the modern penal system. In short, dont blame the President, she was just doing her job.
But our beef is not on forgiveness and on the Board of Pardons and Parole. Our anger stems from the transactional politics of this administration. The common adherence to law and order is thrown at the waste bin to accommodate patronage and political accommodation. The President fails to realize that above-all the wheeling and dealing in the Palace, she is expected to raise the bar of presidential action and in this case, her application of her power to grant pardons.
We have and will continue to support the Constitution and the laws of this Republic. We have done so and continue to do so in the ninety decades of our existence. But what we abhor is the wanton capitulation of this Administration to interest groups or individuals exposing the lack of political will to enforce judicial decisions creating a shadow of doubt as to how this government will fight corruption and lawlessness when high profile and financially endowed murderers, rapists, thieves and plunderers are granted pardon and clemency at the beck of presidential prerogative.
We are aware that Arroyos record of pardoning and granting executive clemency to many prisoners run into the hundreds if not thousands by this time. But we reckon that such actions to release and award freedom to old, sickly convicts with deteriorating health conditions will be the same action of any other president. To argue here that the president chooses neither from power nor from lack of it is misleading, if not downright pretentious. And because the decision to grant pardons and clemency have been tainted , what we hear is the process rhetoric.
Why then would we not think that this government is biased for the privileged few and not for all when the President pardons the likes of Jaime Ponce de Leon, convicted of 27 counts of graft and sentenced to 203 years in prison but never saw even the mere shadow of his prison cell because he was pardoned on the day he was to serve his sentence. We have the bungled initial release and pardon of convicted rapist Romeo Jalosjos, an ex-Congressman who had to be re-captured in hometown Zamboanga only to be finally freed after a few months re-detention. The other equally famous Claudio Teehankee, son of a former Chief Justice who lived a pampered life inside Bilibid who was released even before media got wind of the news. And of course, most obvious and sensational of all, the granting of executive clemency to former president Erap Estrada who was convicted of plunder, more from being handed his sentence.
We are a nation of laws. We seek redress from the courts and we find its judgment the final arbiter of the gravity of ones offense. Presidential pardon is a special privilege allocated to the President to use and exercise with utmost care and discretion. It is neither a magic wand nor a free-pass granted at whim. The Board of Pardons and Parole is a commendable government agency whose goal is to provide a venue for relief and executive action for humanitarian reasons. Its recommendations must not be the sole basis for judgment of pardons and clemency. Just like any other democratic process, the flip side of the coin must also be presented. The parties aggrieved must be reached and their assent secured.
We believe that Rodolfo M. Manalili deserves to serve his full sentence. The lives of Cochise and Beebom can at the very least be honored by making those responsible for their deaths serve their full sentence. We deplore the official statement that the pardon was an exercise in process and that the Presidents signature is merely ministerial. We condemn the inclusion and even the mere allusion of a changed man as a primary basis for exacting pardons and the process used to bear these fruits. The serving of ones sentence implicitly involves ones repentance and remorse. No amount of good behaviour should be incorporated as a means to shorten ones sentence for it depraves us of our own dignity and corrodes our trust and allegiance to our laws.
We ask the President to repeal the pardon and exact on Manalili and his cohorts that in the Philippines, crime does pay.
We also call on every decent and law-abiding Filipino to join our call.
For the memory of Cochise and Beebom, we remain steadfast.
For the Upsilon Sigma Phi Alumni Association (USPAA):
Eliseo M. Ilano, Chairman
Jacinto S. Puno, President
For the Upsilon Sigma Phi Los Banos Alumni Association (USPLBAA):
Arbie Bisenio, Chairman
For the Upsilon Sigma Phi North America (USPNA):
Noel Cruz, President
For the Upsilon Sigma Phi Resident Chapters:
Julian Rodrigo A. dela Cruz, Illustrious Fellow (Diliman)
Jupiter Pante P. Nunez, Illustrious Fellow (Los Banos)
We, the members of the Upsilon Sigma Phi and the Upsilon Sigma Phi Alumni Association, Inc. condemn in the strongest possible terms the commutation of the sentence of Rodolfo Rudy Manalili, the murderer of our dear fraternity brother Ernesto Cochise Bernabe II and his girlfriend Ana Lourdes Beebom Castanos.
As law abiding citizens and taxpayers of this country, we are appalled at the utter disregard by Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the rule of law and our time-honored system of justice.
Manalili and those convicted with him Roberto Lising, Robin Manga, Enrico Dizon and Filemon Garcia slaughtered Cochise as if he were an animal, and then raped and slaughtered Beebom as well. Cutting short Manalilis double life sentence for the kidnapping and murder of Cochise and Beebom will allow him to roam the streets within the next 3 years, thus exposing to serious danger the lives of the witnesses who testified against him.
The decision penned by then Quezon City trial judge Tirso Velasco stated that the crime Manalili et al committed was so heinous that he (Velasco) would have sentenced them to death had the death penalty been in place at that time. To the relatives of Cochise and Beebom, and to the public at large, the double life sentence was lean enough. Comes now President Arroyo who, probably having been misled by officials of the Board of Pardons and Parole, lessens the penalty to a ridiculous pittance of time in prison.
Based on the presidential prerogative, which we believe was grossly abused, Manalili may be out in 3-8 years time, too soon for those who testified against him or had anything to do with his prosecution. Was it because Manalili is from Pampanga, where President Arroyo hails? Was it because Manalilis family is moneyed and the 2010 elections are near? Is the commutation of Manalilis sentence connected with the commutations of the sentences of other rich heinous crime convicts like Claudio Teehankee, Jr. or wealthy child rapist Romeo Jalosjos? Who will the President free next Mayor Sanchez?
We therefore appeal to President Arroyo to reconsider this travesty of justice. Setting free criminals like Manalili and his ilk sends a chilling message to law abiding citizens of this country we can never feel safe and gives hope to the criminals of this country go ahead, commit a heinous crime, and get away with it. But if you do get caught dont worry… you can always get executive clemency for as long as you know people in the Board of Pardons and Parole and Malacanang.
Julian Rodrigo A. dela Cruz
Illustrious Fellow, Upsilon Sigma Phi (Diliman)
Jupiter Pante P. Nunez
Illustrious Fellow, Upsilon Sigma Phi (Los Banos)
Jacinto S. Puno
President, Upsilon Sigma Phi Alumni Association, Inc.
Noel Cruz
President, Upsilon Sigma Phi – North America