Sierra Madre, 'The
Forest,' Amnesty and Pardon
IMMEDIATELY after taking the 1985 bar examinations, I
hied up to the mountains of the Sierra Madre to wait out
the bar examination results. I lived alone in a farm, used the squawking of
hornbills to determine the time of day and hiked in the mountains that served
as sanctuaries for revolutionaries and resistance fighters, hiding places for
assorted heroes and scoundrels.
As twilight fell, I would return to my house and read
by lamplight up to the wee hours. One of the books that arrested my interest
was The Forest by William J. Pomeroy because it
describes the place where I had built my home. In fact, Pomeroy had marked the
general vicinity with an X.
"Whoever enter forest leave behind the open
world." — warned Pomeroy, an American G.I. who took part in the Leyte landing. He later
studied at the University of the Philippines under
the G.I. bill and married Celia Mariano, another UP
student.
Together with his wife, Pomeroy joined the Hukbalahap
in its struggle for social liberation. They were captured in 1952 and were sent
to Muntinlupa. Pomeroy described Muntinlupa as the apex and nerve center of the
Philippine penal system. He said that the political prisoners from the
Hukbalahap movement were herded to Muntinlupa from 1950 onwards and were
separated from the other prisoners for fear that they would indoctrinate the
rest of the inmates to their cause.
They were charged in the Court of First Instance of
Manila with the complex crime of rebellion with murder. They then pleaded
guilty and were sentenced to reclusion perpetua which carries a maximum penalty
of 40 years imprisonment. After sentencing, they later asked for writs of
habeas corpus alleging that in the case involving the writer Amado Hernandez, it was held that
acts of violence committed in pursuance of rebellion did not give rise to a
complex crime, but only to simple rebellion punishable by prision mayor. Since
they had pleaded guilty, they were entitled to a sentence of prision mayor
only, the minimum of which carries a penalty of six years and one day. Because
they had already served the minimum of prision mayor, after deduction for good
conduct provided by law, they were entitled to be released.
The Court of First Instance of Rizal ordered their
release which was vetoed by the Supreme Court. However, they were able to
secure a pardon from President Carlos P. Garcia before the
latter stepped down from office. That brings me now to the topic of pardon and
amnesty.
The difference between pardon and amnesty is that
pardon is granted to one after conviction; while amnesty is granted to classes
of persons or communities who may be guilty of political offenses, generally
before or after the institution of the criminal prosecution and sometimes after
conviction. Pardon is prospective and relieves the offender of the consequences
of a crime or offense of which he has been convicted; it abolishes or forgives
the punishment. It does not, however, restore the right to hold public office,
or the right to vote, unless such rights are expressly restored by the terms of
the pardon and does not exempt the offender from payment of any imposed civil
liability. Amnesty looks backward and abolishes the offense itself, and
therefore, one who avails of amnesty is released and stands before the law
precisely as though he had committed no crime or offense.
It is worth mentioning that before the arrest of
Pomeroy and his wife, then President Elpidio
Quirino on June 21, 1948, signed Proclamation 76 granting
amnesty under certain conditions to members of the Hukbalahap. One of the
conditions was that the Huks, as members of the movement were called, must
surrender within 20 days to be entitled to the amnesty. In a decided case, the
Supreme Court declared that the purpose of the amnesty was to secure a pledge
of loyalty and obedience to the duly constituted authority and encourage those
who have surrendered to resume their lawful lives.
After being incarcerated for a decade and then
pardoned, the militant couple William and Celia Pomeroy were
eventually released. They then decided to spend the rest of their lives
in Great Britain since Celia
was barred from entering the United States. They lived in a
small flat in London, slightly bigger than their makeshift hut in their
hideaway in a place marked X in the Sierra Madre mountains. William Pomeroy,
writer and revolutionary, died in January 2009, followed by his wife, Celia Mariano Pomeroy, on Aug. 22,
2009.
As for the Ateneo Class of 1985 who took the bar? We
dominated the top 10 and became lawyers — I wouldn't dare name its members lest
I be accused of boastful talk.
Read: Group files motion for reconsideration vs. SC ruling on anti-terror law
(The Manila Times, April 9, 2022)