De Lima insists original IRR consistent with GCTA law

Detained Senator Leila de Lima insisted Friday that the original implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law are consistent with the law itself and in keeping with the principle of restorative justice.

“The IRR is consistent with the law. Hindi mali ang batas na ang orihinal na layunin ay magpatupad ng tunay na repormang correctional, at lalong hindi mali ang IRR nito. Ang mali ay kung paano ipinatupad at inabuso ng administrasyong ito ang batas,” De Lima, a former justice secretary, said in a press statement.

She said the original IRR did not indicate the exclusion of heinous crime convicts because the law itself did not disqualify them from earning time allowances based on good conduct to begin with.

“There is no irregularity or incorrectness in the original IRR of the GCTA Law, which was issued as an institutional output of the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, during the Aquino administration,” she said.

The DOJ and DILG recently released the revised IRR of the expanded GCTA Law which now categorically excludes all convicts of heinous crime from availing of GCTA and other time allowances.

The senator said President Rodrigo Duterte and his supporters blamed her and former Interior secretary Mar Roxas, whose agencies issued the original IRR, on the controversies surrounding the GCTA Law to cover up the alleged corruption within the Bureau of Corrections which resulted to questionable releases of some undeserving convicts.

“Diyan naman magaling sila Mr. Duterte, ang maghanap ng sisisihin kapag pumalpak sila at nabunyag ang mga kalokohan nila,” she said. — Amita Legaspi/RSJ, GMA News