MANILA The convicted killer of an Italian priest, who escaped from a southern Philippine prison last month, surrendered on Monday to face trial for a different murder case.

Norberto Manero surrendered to Jesus Dureza, a presidential adviser on regional affairs, in a remote village near Polomolok town in South Cotabato Province, 1,050 kilometers south of Manila.

Dureza said Manero would be presented to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday at the military's southern command headquarters in nearby Zamboanga city.

He said Manero would then be brought to a jail in Davao city, where he would be detained while facing trial for kidnapping and double murder charges for a 1977 crime.

Manero, who was convicted of killing Italian priest Tulio Favali in 1985, escaped from a provincial jail on March 22.

In an interview with a Manila Radio Station, Manero said he hopes to be able to inform Arroyo about his concerns over the slow progress of his case and the cases of his fellow prisoners.

"I want to face the charges against me," he said. "But I want the government to hear my concerns as a prisoner."

Manero was pardoned in December 1999 for the killing of Favali and released on February 2000. But his freedom sparked a public outcry, prompting former president Joseph Estrada to revoke the pardon.

He was rearrested in March 2000. Justice officials later uncovered the kidnapping and double murder case pending in a court in nearby Sarangani Province.

A former paramilitary troop leader in the southern Mindanao region, Manero was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for the murder of Favali, whose body he allegedly cannibalized.

Two of Manero's brothers and four other militiamen were also convicted of the crime.

In 1997, former president Fidel Ramos reduced Manero's sentence due to good behavior, making him eligible for conditional pardon.

(DPA)