TEN soldiers convicted for the 1983 murder of democracy icon and opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. were freed yesterday after being granted executive clemency, officials said.

The 10 were to walk free from the national penitentiary for a medical checkup before being reunited with their relatives, Justice Department officials said.

Two others were freed in February after President Arroyo granted them clemency for good behavior.

?They have exceeded their sentences,? Bureau of Corrections Director Oscar Calderon said.

?They should not have suffered more because, in the first place, they have not been found guilty of the crime,? Iloilo Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said.

Malaca?ang said Mrs. Arroyo?s pardon of the 10 were purely for humanitarian reasons.

?I thank God for answering my prayers,? said former Sgt. Ruben Aquino, one of those freed.

The men were convicted for the 1983 murder of Aquino, the outspoken arch-foe of then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos. Aquino was gunned down as he arrived from exile in the United States, triggering widespread public outrage.

Anger over his death eventually snowballed into a popular revolt that toppled Marcos from power in 1986 and installed Aquino?s widow, Corazon, as president. Marcos died in exile in Hawaii in 1989.

A court convicted 16 soldiers of Aquino?s murder. Two of them died in jail.

The convicted men have insisted they are innocent and that the opposition leader was killed by a communist hit-man.

The Aquino family has publicly said that Marcos was behind the assassination, a charge the deposed strongman denied till his death. AFP with Ferdinand Fabella, Arlie Calalo, Roy Pelovello