JEDDAH, 25 October 2007 — A Filipino truck driver who had been serving a jail sentence for the accidental death of four Saudi nationals three years ago was freed yesterday, the Philippine Consulate General in Jeddah said.

Benedicto Capulong, a 57-year-old native of Baliuag town in Bulacan province, north of Manila, was among several prisoners granted clemency by the Saudi government on the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said Consul General Pendosina N. Lomondot.

Lomondot, citing records of the case, said Capulong was driving a trailer truck on the way to the mountain city of Taif from Jeddah on July 12, 2004, when the accident happened.

Capulong’s truck was negotiating a curve about 50 kilometers away from Jeddah when it collided head-on with a GMC sports utility vehicle with six people on board.

Four of the car’s passengers — two men and two women — died. Capulong himself helped in the rescue of the victims before turning himself in to the police

Lomondot, who requested royal clemency for Capulong before the Ramadan season, said that a total of 250,000 Saudi riyals was paid by an unnamed Saudi philanthropist as diyah or “blood money” to the families of the victims.

A court ordered Capulong to pay SR 100,000 riyals to each of the dead male victims and SR50,000 to the each of the two women fatalities.

But the family of one of the female victims waived the diyah.

Lomondot said the two injured victims also waived their claims against Capulong, and so did the owner of the destroyed GMC vehicle.

Capulong was profuse with gratitude as he was brought to the consulate yesterday. He said he was thankful to the surviving victims and the dead victims’ families for pardoning him, to the Saudi government for granting him clemency, and to the Philippine officials and compatriots who helped him during his imprisonment.

Capulong said he first came to work in Saudi Arabia in 1980.