Court order needed for re-arrest

CEBU, Philippines — If there is an order from the court, Cebu City Police Office director Police Colonel Gemma Vinluan said they will re-arrest the three ex-convicts in the case of the Chiong sisters who were released for good conduct.

“Of course po. Kung meron pong court order, hindi tayo magdadalawang isip na ipa-arrest po ito,” she said, referring to Josman Aznar, Ariel Balansag, and Alberto Caño.

However, without a court order she said they can only arrest someone if the crime is visibly seen, if a person has seen the crime being committed, or someone is about to commit a crime.

“Of course manghuhuli lang tayo kung mayroon tayong crime na nakita, ‘yung citizen’s crime, in your presence the crime is being committed or has just been committed, or is about commit a crime, kung binigyan sila ng pardon natural na hindi natin yun huhulihin,” Vinluan explained.

Authorities will now include the three ex-convicts in their monitoring list.

“Pero iwa-watchlist natin sila, kunbaga kasama isa sila sa mga imo-monitor natin ang mga activities. Wag silang magkakamali,” Vinluan added.

Vinluan also explained that convicted persons in Cebu City who were under a plea-bargaining agreement will still be under their surveillance and monitoring.

“Actually hindi lang sila ang mino-monitor naming, even lahat ng mag pi-plea bargaining sa less than five Grams, iwa-watchlist namin. sila. Pag hindi sila nagbagong-buhay, umasa sila, ibabalik naming sila sa kulungan,” she said.

Blame the previous administration

Meanwhile, Malacañang yesterday blamed the previous administration for what it described as the “messy” implementation of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law that paved way to the release of three convicts.

Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon disclosed in a Senate hearing last Monday that Aznar, Balansag, and Caño walked free in August due to good behavior.

The three were among the seven people convicted for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in Cebu in 1997.

Aznar, Balansag, and Caño benefited from the GCTA law or Republic Act 10592, which reduces a prisoner’s jail time using a formula tallying good conduct. Previous reports said the convicts were released because of the retroactive application of the GCTA law, which is not supposed to cover inmates guilty of heinous crimes, habitual delinquents, recidivists, and escapees.

Thelma Chiong, the mother of the victims, has described the release as “injustice” and has urged President Duterte to stop the release of the convicts.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said it would be unfair to blame Duterte for the release of heinous crime inmates, noting that the GCTA law’s implementing rules were crafted in 2014, two years before the President assumed office. He said Mrs. Chiong appeared to question the integrity of Duterte when she asked the President what happened to the GCTA law.

“As revealed during the discussions during the congressional hearing yesterday (Sept. 2), it has been the practice of the Bureau of Corrections, during the previous administration, to release persons deprived of liberty from imprisonment due to good conduct, regardless of whether they were serving their sentences for a conviction of a heinous crime or not,” Panelo said in a statement.

Panelo said the basis for this practice was the implementing rules and regulations of the law, which was crafted and issued jointly by former justice secretary and now senator Leila De Lima and former interior secretary Manuel Roxas II, in 2014.

“Cleary, the law and its IRR were prepared not by the officials of this Administration but by the previous one,” Panelo said.

The practice of granting GCTA to those convicted of heinous crimes has also been existent years before Duterte assumed office, he added.

“What made it so messy is because of the implementing rules and regulations. You need to change the implementing rules and regulations. Now, after changing it, you will leave it to the wisdom of the lawmakers whether to amend it or to repeal it,” the presidential spokesman said in a press briefing.

Panelo claimed those who had a hand in including ineligible convicts in the list of GCTA beneficiaries and who did the computations on time allowance were probably employees hired during the previous administrations and are therefore protected by the Civil Service Law.

“Hence, (President Duterte) could not - and cannot - just remove them without violating their security of tenure,” he said.

Panelo reiterated that the actual computation of GCTA does not pass through the justice department and therefore would not even reach the Office of the President.

“We stress that the granting of GCTA is not a form of executive clemency, the awarding of which belongs to the Office of the President. The buck in this case stops with the Bureau of Corrections,” he added.

“While the Palace understands the plight of Mrs. Chiong and commiserates with her situation, we believe that blaming (the President) for Republic Act No. 10592 with all its ambiguities is undeserved and unfair.”

Panelo expressed hope that the ambiguities in the GCTA law would be remedied by Congress. He said the Office of the President has urged the department to study the possibility of re-arresting those released for GCTA but were disqualified by law, including those convicted of heinous crimes. He said without lawful justification, a GCTA grant is void and the person who benefited from it may not invoke its irrevocability

“The President will not tolerate any form of injustice being committed under his watch and it is for this reason that he will ensure that the practice initiated by the past administration on the granting of GCTA will no longer continue,” Panelo said. — Philippine STAR News Service, BRP, (FREEMAN)