827 ex-con surrenderers released after GCTA mess, says DOJ

Over 800 of the more than 2,000 former prisoners who went back behind bars on orders by President Rodrigo Duterte have been released, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the DOJ have released 827 people or more than a third of the 2,352 surrenderers by batches in the past months, Justice Assistant Secretary Neal Bainto said in a recent interview.

Last September, Duterte ordered the surrender of convicts of heinous crimes who were released from prison because their sentences had been shortened by good conduct time allowances (GCTA). Non-surrenderers would have been subject to rearrest for evasion of sentence.

The original list of expected returnees contained 1,914 names, but the actual number of surrenderers exceeded 2,000 as even those whose releases were not related to GCTAs turned themselves in.

This and the fact that the information turned out to be riddled with errors which prompted authorities to clean up the list and facilitate the release of those who should not have surrendered.

"Actually, the process is still ongoing, but we think that probably a good number of the remaining surrenderers will be reincarcerated," Bainto told reporters.

He said as many as 300 surrenderers were released at one time by the BuCor in the Davao Penal Colony.

Undersecretary Markk Perete of the DOJ said the department hopes that fewer people will be required to turn themselves in once the review of the original list is completed because "many of them are to be included in the benefits of the GCTA law in the first place."

Asked why authorities did not wait for the cleanup to be finished before asking for the surrender, Perete said they "did not have the luxury of time at that point."

At the time, the BuCor was at the center of scrutiny for its interpretation of the GCTA law: it had applied good conduct credits to the sentences of all convicted prisoners for years, until the alleged impending release of Antonio Sanchez, a former mayor convicted of rape and murder, under such a system hit the headlines.

The Sanchez case sparked public and official criticism and prompted a Senate investigation and a review of the GCTA law's implementing rules. The revised rules explicitly excludes recidivists, habitual delinquents, escapees, and those charged with heinous crimes from earning any kind of time allowance.

The controversy also resulted in the easing out of former Marine officer Nicanor Faeldon as BuCor chief.

Some Bilibid inmates have challenged the new rules before the Supreme Court. — RSJ, GMA News