MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon has suggested that President Rodrigo Duterte issue an executive order (EO) giving the Department of Justice (DOJ) power to reverse decisions by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) on the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) given to prisoners.
“I would suggest that in the meantime, an EO be issued by the President giving his power of control over BuCor [and] delegate this to the Secretary of Justice,” Drilon said in a weekly press forum on Wednesday.
“So the SOJ (Secretary of Justice) can exercise the delegated power of the President and reverse the decisions of BuCor, in other words the SOJ will act by authority of the President,” he further said.
Under Republic Act No. 10592, the law that increased the GCTA awarded to inmates, it is the decision of the BuCor as to whether or an inmate is entitled to time allowance or is excluded from benefiting from the said law, Drilon explained.
“One of the reforms that we should have is [to focus on] the power of the BuCor director to decide by himself on the liberty or continued incarceration of a particular prisoner without the review process in the Department of Justice,” he added.
This as Drilon explained that because BuCor is only an attached agency of the DOJ, the justice secretary “cannot reverse the decision of the [BuCor].”
“Because when you say attached agency, it means you only report to the Secretary of Justice during budget time because there is no control over the agency,” he added.
However, Drilon’s office later clarified that the senator’s comments “were based on general knowledge of the law.”
According to Drilon’s office, upon checking appropriate laws, the senator “found out that there is already a law (RA 10575), which was enacted last May 2013.”
The said law “retained the DOJ’s authority over the power to review, reverse, revise or modify the decisions of the BuCor in the exercise of its regulatory or quasi-judicial functions.”
“Hence, the EO to delegate the power of control and supervision of the President over BuCor, which he recommended earlier, is not necessary,” Drilon’s office said in a clarificatory statement sent to reporters after the forum.
“He just reiterates his call on the DOJ to supervise carefully the BuCor particularly with respect to the implementation of the GCTA Law as he suspects negligence, if not misconduct, in the recording of the violations of prisoners such as Sanchez,” the statement added.
READ: Drilon says there is ‘negligence, if not corruption’ at BuCor
Reports of the possible release of convicted rapist-murderer former Calauan, Laguna mayor Antonio Sanchez because of good behavior sparked discussions on R.A. 102592.
The President earlier ordered both the BuCor and the DOJ to block the early release of Sanchez.
READ: Duterte to DOJ, BuCor: Don’t release Sanchez
The former mayor and six of his henchmen were convicted by the Pasig Regional Trial Court in 1995 for the brutal rape and murder of University of the Philippines -Los Baños student Eileen Sarmenta and the killing of her friend Allan Gomez. /muf