Friday, November 25, 2005  

Thelma Chiong writes.... President on minister's.. comment

      THELMA Chiong yesterday said she wrote President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo bringing to her attention reports of local dailies she had assured Spanish Defense Minister Jose Bono of sparing the life of Paco Larrañaga.

      "Madam president, I am deeply pained by these reports," she wrote.

      Larrañaga is one of five sons of prominent families now awaiting their death sentence on the rape and disappearance of the Chiong sisters.

      Chiong said for several years we have struggled to attain justice for the gruesome death of her daughters Jacqueline and Marijoy.

       Practically dedicating her life to see to it that the guilty would face the full penalty for the crime, upholding the guilt of Larrañaga and the rest of the accused is a "triumph of truth and justice."

       She added that the decision was painstakingly arrived at after the court objectively evaluated the evidence that had been presented before it.

       To undo the entire judicial system because of undue pressure exerted by other countries, "would be highly prejudicial not only to our family but more particularly to the entire justice system of the country."

      "Being a mother yourself, I have no doubt that you can understand the grief and sorrow of a mother who lost two exceptionally wonderful and God-fearing daughters in what is probably one of the most heinous crime that our country has ever seen," the letter read. /CHIEF OF REPORTERS SUZZANE SALVA-ALUETA