Is it time to forgive and forget?

After hearing the news that the ten convicts for killing Ninoy Aquino stepped out of the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City on Wednesday as part of an executive clemency granted by President Macapagal-Arroyo on March 2, I was appalled.

They were convicted murderers of the man we consider a hero. What would you feel if you see them walking out of the Bilibid Prison because they were pardoned by your president since “they have suffered enough”?

They never admitted the crime, instead they insist that communist hit man Rolando Galman killed Aquino before Galman himself was shot by soldiers.  After all that was written and reported about that assassination, I find that hard to believe. After all these years, they are still protecting the real mastermind and for that, I don’t think they deserve their freedom.

But after seeing those men on TV, I still felt pity. After more than two decades in jail, some of them no longer have families to go home to. If after all those years they still chose to protect the real mastermind, perhaps for the sake of their family’s safety, more time behind bars would not make any difference.

Filipinos have divided opinions on this especially on its political color. But everybody would understand and empathize with the family of the late senator. That death of Ninoy may have immortalized him in our eyes but his family are as human as us. They feel pain,  grieve the loss of a loved one and want those responsible to be put behind bars.

When Ninoy was killed, his family was not only robbed of a husband,  father, son, brother . . . his killers robbed this country of the best president we might have had.