When I was still a police beat reporter, there's a street term for my topic today. When cops arrest a small fry in the drug business, they usually "negotiate" with the suspect to tell his other accomplices. What cops will do is offer him freedom in exchange for telling them the place where a bigger drug personality lives. In street lingo, this is called "palit ulo" or "exchange".
The question is---with these so-called "revelations" being unleashed by former governor and close Arroyo associate Zaldy Ampatuan against his former benefactors, was there a secret "deal" for this Ampatuan to "tell-all" in exchange for his freedom?
I doubt if freedom was the topic of exchange, maybe a little "leeway" or a "loosening" of bonds, so to speak? Maybe some emissaries were sent to some palace official, asking for some "leeway" which we simply can't determine now. Yet, the truth will come out, sooner than later.
Freedom is simply out of the question simply because public outrage will definitely come out of it. The crime the Ampatuans committed was so gruesome and heinous that negotiating for freedom is simply out of synch with political reality.
Maybe, lessening the penalties for the crime? Yet, being a suspect in a crime of conspiracy, the punishment of one is the punishment of all. Zaldy can't simply escape this even with a strong Palaca backer.
How about lessening the period of detention by a presidential pardon? If convicted of the crime of multiple murder, the penalty is life imprisonment. In our jurisdiction, it means 40 years. There are, however, cases where lifers get pardoned by the President. Is this the topic of "exchange"?
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