De Lima, Roxas on GCTA mess: Don't blame us for corrupt BuCor officials

Officials of the Aquino administration should not take the fall for corrupt Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officials responsible for releasing convicts of heinous crimes due to good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law, Senator Leila de Lima and former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas II said Tuesday.

De Lima and Roxas were responding to the letter sent by Ombudsman Samuel Martires asking them to explain why they failed to exclude those convicted of heinous crimes as beneficiaries of GCTA law under its implementing rules and regulations (IRR).

It was during the time of De Lima as Secretary of the Department of Justice and Roxas as Secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) when the IRR on Republic Act 10592 or the GCTA law was published.

“The letter says that the Office of the Ombudsman has opened a fact-finding investigation on alleged irregularities in the implementation of the GCTA Law. Am I to be treated here as a resource person, a respondent, or a probable respondent?” De Lima, who has been in detention over drug-related charges since February 2017, said in a statement.

“Is this a set-up for me and Secretary Mar into taking the fall for the Sanchez-Faeldon scandal with which we have nothing to do? I find this development highly irregular,” she added.

De Lima was referring to the controversy stirred by the reported looming release of convicted rapist and killer Antonio Sanchez, the former mayor of Calauan, Laguna who was convicted for the rape and killing of UP Los Baños students Eileen Sarmenta and death of Allan Gomez in 1993.

For his part, Roxas stressed that they did not defy the GCTA law in drafting the IRR.

“May batas na pinasa, di ba? Ang nilalaman ng IRR ay nakakuwadro sa batas, hindi puwedeng humigit sa Republic 10592 (GCTA law). Bakit ang mga sumulat ng IRR ang pinupuntirya ninyo?” Roxas said in a separate statement.

The GCTA law and its IRR do not exclude convicts of heinous crime from benefiting under the law.

Section 1 of the GCTA law, however, amended Article 29 of the Revised Penal Code by providing that “computation of preventive imprisonment for purposes of immediate release should start on the actual period of detention with good conduct time allowance, provided, that if the accused is absent without justifiable cause at any stage of the trial, the court may motu proprio order the rearrest of the accused; provided, finally, that recidivists, habitual delinquents, escapees and persons charged with heinous crimes are excluded from the coverage of this law.”

But Section 3 of the GCTA law reads, “the good conduct of any offender qualified for credit for preventive imprisonment pursuant to Article 29 of this Code, or of any convicted prisoner in any penal institution, rehabilitation or detention center or any other local jail should entitle him or her the following deductions:

• During the first two years of imprisonment, he shall be allowed a deduction of twenty days for each month of good behavior during detention;
• During the third to the fifth year, inclusive, of his imprisonment, he shall be allowed a reduction of twenty-three days for each month of good behavior during detention;
• During the following years until the tenth year, inclusive, of his imprisonment, he shall be allowed a deduction of twenty-five days for each month  During the eleventh and successive years of his imprisonment, he shall be allowed a deduction of thirty days for each month of good behavior during detention;
• At any time during the period of imprisonment, he shall be allowed another deduction of fifteen days, in addition to numbers one to four hereof, for each month of study, teaching or mentoring service time rendered.”

Instead of training guns on former government officials, Roxas said the Ombudsman should investigate officials who released convicts of heinous crimes under GCTA, those who approved the release of convicts of heinous crimes under GCTA but defied their operations manual and officials who gave credits for good conduct.

“Totoo nga bang good conduct ang mga ito o imbento lang?,” Roxas said.

“Halatang gusto na namang ibaling ang atensyon sa iba,” Roxas added. —LDF, GMA News