Philippine President Gloria Arroyo days today released a statement that the Palace would support a reopening of the Ninoy Aquino murder case. The Palace spokesman Cerge Remonde admitted that the convicted may have been wanting then saying : " Valerio is the key in the reopening of the case.. but the problem is that Valerio is out of the country and it is not known where he is."

Capt. Felipe Valerio was the group commander of the then AVSECOM (Aviation Security Command) which was assigned to escort Aquino out of the China Airlines plane which landed at the Manila airport on Aughust 21, 1983.

In a separate development, Aquino's son Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III blames Arroyo for her humanitarian gesture caling it a political vendetta even as he insists that the Philippine president should resign from office. Arroyo's term Constitutionally ends 2010.

Arroyo commuted the sentence because the soldiers were old and sick "and they some of them have already died in prison", Remonde said. Two other soldiers alleged to have been involved in the Aquino killing are now dead.

Despite the fact however that the Aquino case has admittedly not been thoroughly investigated, the last 10 soldiers -Ruben Aquino, Arnulfo Artates,Romeo Bautista, Jesus Castro, Arnulfo de Mesa, Rodolfo Desolong, Claro Lat, Filomena Miranda and Rogelio Moreno already served 30 years in prison.

The Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) supported Arroyo's decision to grant these alleged killers a presidential pardon.

This leaves ten men and their broken...