By Gigi Mu?oz-David

The family and the counsel of murder victim Eldon Maguan chided yesterday prison officials for granting live-out privileges to convicted murderer Rolito Go, who bolted jail before the promulgation of his sentence in 1993.

Ellis, elder brother of Eldon, said Director Oscar Calderon of the Bureau of Corrections should have checked the convict?s background before signing his release from maximum security on March 13.

In a statement, the Maguans expressed disappointment over the disclosure of executive assistant Supt. Bartolome Bustamante that Go was now a live-out inmate following Calderon?s order based on the recommendation of the classification board.

He said Go was moved to Camp Bukang Liwayway minimum security sector as distinguished from medium security Camp Sampaguita.

?Nothing special with the privilege. He is still an inmate. The bureau only made sure that every time we transfer one inmate from one camp to another, he has a place to rest,? Bustamante told Standard Today in a phone interview, adding that Go was among 61 prisoners picked for transfer by the board.

At Bukang Liwayway, Go and his fellow inmates are subjected to headcount three times a day besides being given specific chores.

To merit transfer, Bustamante said, a convict should have served at least one-third of his sentence; Go has done 17 years of the maximum 30 years meted out to him by the regional trial court in 1996 for killing Eldon in 1991 in San Juan.

The Maguans said Calderon should have given weight to Go?s escape from the Rizal Provincial Jail in Pasig on Nov. 1, 1993 two days before his scheduled sentencing and his recapture after almost two-and-a-half years later in a pig farm in Pampanga.