Barring any change of heart by President Arroyo, the...

Barring any change of heart by President Arroyo, the first ever execution of a death convict under her administration will happen on October 16, Justice Secretary Hernando Perez said.
The President told reporters on July 5 she would definitely not grant a reprieve on convicts scheduled for execution, as she conceded that the death penalty is among the legal weapons the state can use to stop crime.
Perez said that so far only one convict-not two as reported initially-is due for execution in accordance with the orders of the court.
"The court has set the date of execution through lethal injection on Oct. 16 at 3 p.m. There is only one person due for execution," Perez said.
The court that originally handed down the death sentence has the authority to schedule the execution after the Supreme Court has affirmed it.
"The prisoner was sentenced to death for the crime of rape by a Regional Trial Court. His case was affirmed by the Supreme Court on March 1, 2001 and the decision became final and executory on April 17, 2001 per entry of judgment," Perez said.
"I am writing to the President and advising her on the date of the execution and forwarding her the pertinent papers so she can decide whether to commute the sentence or continue with the execution."
Perez refused to name the convict because his identity should be released only the day before the execution "so as not to cause any unnecessary anxiety."
But earlier reports and records of the Bureau of Corrections obtained by media indicate that the doomed man is Alfredo Nardo.
Perez said the man is a "former military" and refused to give further details. Perez clarified that the Bureau of Corrections erred when it announced that kidnappers Roderick Licayan and Ricardo Lara would be the first to be executed in 2002.
Licayan and Lara were to be executed anytime from August this year to March 2003 after their death sentence became final in August 2001.
However, Perez said director Ricardo Macala of the Bureau of Corrections admitted that upon re-examination it was discovered that the Supreme Court affirmed Licayan and Lara's death sentence not in August but in November 2001.
Licayan and Lara were convicted by a Marikina court for the abduction of Joseph Tomas Co and Linda Manaysay in August 1998, whom they brought to Barangay Daang Bakal in the same city. They demanded a P10 million ransom.
Nardo is supposed to be second in line for lethal injection since the high court affirmed the first death sentence on Rolando Pagdayawon, another rapist, in March 2001.
Under the law, execution of a death convict may be done not earlier than 12 months and not later than 18 months from the time the sentence has become final, that is, from the time the Supreme Court affirms the sentence.
Actually, 17 convicts could be sent to the lethal injection chamber this year, including Nardo and Pagdayawon.
Of the 17 on death row facing execution this year, 14 were convicted of rape, 2 of kidnapping, and one of robbery with homicide.Besides Nardo and Pagdayawon, the rapists to be executed this year are Reynaldo Rebato, Alejandro Guntang, Juan Manalo, Ramshad Thamsey, Ramil Velez-Rayos, Nonelito Abenion, Roberto Palero, Castro Geraban, Alejo Miasco, Sandy Hinto, Ireneo Padilla and Pablo Santos.
The only nonrapists in the pack are kidnappers Ricardo Lara and Roderick Licayan, and Reynaldo Morial, convicted of robbery-homicide.