DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS 
P R E S S  R E L E A S E
www.dfa.gov.ph                                                                                           2330 Roxas Blvd., Pasay City, Philippines                                                                                 Tel. No. 834-4000 
SFA-AGR-299-06                                                                                                                                                                                                                             18 April 2006

SPANISH GOVERNMENT EXPRESSES APPRECIATION TO PRESIDENT ARROYO
FOR COMMUTATION OF DEATH PENALTY FOR SPANISH-FILIPINO PACO LARRAÑAGA

18 April 2006 – Philippine Ambassador to Madrid Joseph D. Bernardo y Medina reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that the Government of Spain has expressed “its most sincere gratitude to the Philippine Government, particular to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo” for the commutation of the death penalty on Francisco Javier Larrañaga Gonzales, also known as Paco Larrañaga.

Ambassador Medina said the Directorate  General for External Communication of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation issued the following statement concerning Mr. Larrañaga, translated into English as follows:

“The Government is pleased with the measure of commuting the death penalty by the President of the Philippines, which will benefit Francisco Javier Larrañaga Gonzales.

“The situation of Mr. Larrañaga has been the object of maximum attention on the part of different institutions of the Spanish State that have been all the time interested in his fate before the Philippine authorities; it will be recalled in this sense the messages issued by His Majesty the King and the President of the government, the interest of the Parliament, and the personal representations of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, the Minister of Defense and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

“The Spanish Government wishes to express its most sincere gratitude to the Government of the Philippines, in particular to its president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.”

Records of the Department show that Mr. Francisco Juan Larrañaga is a dual citizen of Spanish father and Filipino mother.   On 3 February 2004, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court decision imposing the death penalty on Mr. Larrañaga as one of the co-conspirators for the kidnap-rape slay of Marijoy Chiong.

Mr. Larrañaga was also meted a life imprisonment for the kidnap and serious illegal detention of Jacqueline Chiong, who has not been found up to the present.

A motion for reconsideration was filed by the Larrañaga family with the Supreme Court last February 2004.   A resolution on the case was reached on 25 May 2004.   The counsels for the appellants filed another motion for reconsideration to review the 25 May resolution.

On 21 July 2005, the Supreme Court promulgated an en banc resolution denying the four individual motions for reconsideration filed by Mr. Francisco Juan Larrañaga, et. al. for the reversal of their conviction.   In denying the motions, the Supreme Court said it “embarked on a painstaking task of evaluating every piece and specie of evidence presented before the trial court in response to the appellants’ appeal for the reversal of their conviction.”

On 15 April 2006 in her Easter Day Message, President Arroyo announced the commutation of all death sentences to life imprisonment. END
 

/jay