More than 2,000 heinous crime convicts released through GCTA

MANILA, Philippines — A total of 2,352 inmates convicted of heinous crimes and ordered by President Duterte to surrender have been released through the good conduct time allowance (GCTA), the Department of Justice (DOJ) said yesterday.

The number of inmates released was 428 more than the original list of 1,914 names provided by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). 

“Of that number, the DOJ assisting the BuCor confirmed the release of 463 PDLs (persons deprived of liberty). BuCor, based on their own assessment released 364 (PDLs). So, in total, 827 have been actually released from the 2,352 who surrendered,” DOJ Assistant Secretary Neal Vincent Bainto said.

However, Bainto said he could not confirm if the remaining 1,525 PDLs were unqualified to benefit from the GCTA. 

“Actually the process is still ongoing. But we think that probably a good number of the remaining surrenderers will be re-incarcerated,” he added. 

The 827 PDLs were released in tranches over the last few months. “This is a continuing process. They would be released in batches.”

The BuCor earlier gave the initial figure of 1,914 PDLs convicted of heinous crimes released through the GCTA from 2014 until this year.

Last Sept. 4, President Duterte gave 15 days for the 1,914 PDLs to turn themselves in and present themselves before the BuCor that would re-compute their GCTAs.  

The implementation of Republic Act 10592 or the expanded application of GCTA became controversial after former Calauan, Laguna mayor Antonio Sanchez, who was convicted of murder, was reported to be waiting for release on account of his GCTA.

The BuCor in September resumed releasing convicts who are qualified under the GCTA law based on a new internal rule, which excludes heinous crime convicts.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra previously said that if the prisoner is not a heinous crime convict and his records are clean with no contention, he could be released.