Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 30) — Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has submitted a partial list of heinous crime convicts previously freed through the expanded Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) policy to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, signalling that they may be arrested again.
Guevarra told reporters that he has emailed Año Monday afternoon his letter with the partial list of those to be rearrested.
“This list is a partial list only. Sinusuyod ng DOJ-BuCor (Department of Justice – Bureau of Corrections) task force ang case records of each PDL (person deprived with liberty) with extreme care to ensure accuracy,” he said earlier.
[Translation: This list is a partial list only. The DOJ-BuCor task force is going through case records of each PDL with extreme care to ensure accuracy.]
This “cleaned up” list will guide the Philippine National Police in hunting down previously released heinous crime convicts who are still at large and are now being considered fugitives.
BuCor’s initial list contained grave errors, it even included alleged pork barrel scam queen Janet Lim Napoles. The charge attached to her name was rape, not plunder. Aside from spotting these mistakes, the Justice department had to remove from the list those who were previously released on valid grounds.
The government initially targeted to bring back to jail 1,916 heinous crime convicts who have been reported to have benefited from the expanded GCTA law, which more than doubled the time allowances granted to prisoners for good conduct.
However, when President Rodrigo Duterte’s 15-day ultimatum for them to surrender lapsed, the number of those who turned themselves in exceeded 1,916.
The government is now in the process of reevaluating the records of these prisoners and freeing them in batches once they find out that they have fully complied with regulations.
A total of 87 convicts who have previously been released and turned themselves in have been freed again, according to the Justice department.
CNN Philippines Justice Correspondent Anjo Alimario contributed to this report.
