MANILA, Philippines – Senator Franklin Drilon said corruption or negligence may be the reason why no violation was reflected in the prison records of rape and murder convict and former Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez.
At Tuesday’s Senate probe into the implementation of a law on good conduct time allowance (GCTA), Drilon asked Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon why GCTAs were granted to Sanchez when the former mayor was found violating prison rules.
Drilon noted that Sanchez was guilty of violations of the anti-drug law in 2006 and in 2010.
“None of those violations are reflected in records…In other words he was really a good prisoner on basis of the record,” he pointed out.
“Either there was corruption or there was negligence because it is obvious that there were a lot of violations,” he added.
Before this, Drilon cited Sanchez’s prison record which showed that the high-profile convict was given 360 days of good conduct credit in 2015.
In 2015, Sanchez’s luxurious kubol (quarters) furnished with an air condition and a flat-screen television was discovered.
This violation, Faeldon said, was the reason why he stopped the processing of the former mayor’s release “a few minutes” after he signed his release order.
Faeldon’s side
“I used the kubol destruction in 2015 as my basis why I strongly believe he has not earned GCTA. Because other than that, I have not found any legal basis to stop the release of PDL (persons deprived of liberty) Sanchez in accordance with the way the bureau has been interpreting this ever since,” Faeldon said.
But Drilon further quizzed the BuCor chief over the granting of good conduct credit to Sanchez during his time in detention.
“Why was he credited with time allowance? When in fact the law is very clear, when you are charged with heinous crimes, the period of detention is not deducted, but in your case you violated that very clear provision of the good conduct time allowance law,” Drilon pointed out.
Faeldon replied: “I cannot grant GCTAs in the times that I was not the director.”
But Drilon pointed out that Faeldon signed Sanchez’s release order based on the latter’s prison records.
“It only means that you also approved of this computation,” the senator said.
Faeldon, however, still maintained that he stopped the processing of Sanchez’s release.
“Because of my assumption that he has not earned GCTAs since his incarceration after 2015. That’s my only reason to stop it but the process before it reaches me, I need to validate,” the BuCor chief said.
“Because there is an MSEC (Management Screening and Evaluation Committee) local, MSEC national, several offices until the records was in my office. That’s why Mr. Sanchez is still in jail because in the same day, few minutes after I signed, I stopped it because I believe there is something wrong in the granting of his GCTAs,” he added. /gsg