DOJ rushes to correct list as BuCor sees deluge of surrenderers

Justice and prison authorities are rushing to correct an apparently erroneous list of released convicts as surrenderers returned to prison by the thousands, some reportedly insisting to stay until they are assured they will not be arrested outside.

President Rodrigo Duterte's deadline for the 1,914 "prematurely" released convicts of heinous crimes to turn themselves in lapsed on Thursday, but the Department of Justice (DOJ) is still cleaning up the Bureau of Corrections' (BuCor) original information to produce a reliable arrest list for the police.

The work involves removing from the list those who already surrendered and those who were pardoned or are out on parole, as well as verifying if the remaining names were indeed convicted of heinous crimes, Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said Friday.

Perete, the department's spokesman, said the DOJ is "fast-tracking" the cleanup. They failed to complete this task by September 19, prompting them to request the police to hold off any arrest early Friday.

As of 5 a.m., the number of surrenderers exceeded the expected figure: 2,009 people turned themselves in, with the bulk -- 1,773 -- returning to the BuCor in Muntinlupa and the other 236 presenting themselves to the police, Perete said.

He said the DOJ assumes that some of them were not even convicted of heinous crimes.

Perete said the BuCor asked those were found to be not in the original list to leave prison premises but he claimed they refused to leave without a certification that they will not be rearrested once back outside.

"Pending the issuance of that certification, they insisted that they remain inside the BuCor, which is understandable," he said, explaining that it is part of their work to provide such documents.

While their individual cases are being verified and reassessed, the surrenderers are once again considered inmates at the New Bilibid Prison's minimum security compound, the DOJ official said.

To recall, Duterte issued his ultimatum after it was revealed that nearly 2,000 prisoners convicted of heinous crimes were released in the last five years because good conduct time allowances shortened their sentences.

Though the BuCor previously applied the expanded law on GCTAs to all convicted prisoners, the government now says persons charged with heinous crimes should be disqualified from earning any kind of time allowance.

This position is reflected in the revised implementing rules and regulations of the law, Republic Act No. 10592.

The BuCor originally said 1,914 heinous crime convicts were released from 2014 to 2019.

But its list turned out to be riddled with errors, like mismatched names and crimes, conflicting release dates, and double entries, earning the bureau's records chief a scolding at the Senate, where he admitted the list was "hastily made."

The cleanup that ensued has so far whittled down the list to around 600 as of Thursday noon, that is, 1,914 minus the number of surrenderers at the time, which was 1,304, according to Perete.

Authorities expect the number to go even further down as more people surrender and as they purge it of errors. A total of 41 names may be removed from the "residual" list because they were pardoned or paroled and not released in connection with GCTAs, Perete said.

"We want to expedite that process so they can be released immediately," he said, adding that the department "understand[s] that it is unfair for them to be detained one day longer."

He said the police is waiting for the corrected list. — RSJ, GMA News