16 February 2006 :
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo ordered prison authorities to commute the sentences of 280 people on death row to life imprisonment.Arroyo said she was also granting conditional pardons to 46 other prisoners facing lesser charges in order to "decongest the prisons and for humanitarian reasons". She did not give details of the people whose sentences were commuted or who were pardoned. At least 1,280 people were on death row in the Philippines.
(Sources: Agence France Presse, 15/02/2006)
