Chiong sisters’ ma: 15 days for convicts to surrender ‘too long’

Thelma Chiong, mother of rape-murder victims Marijoy, 20, and Jacqueline, 22, said the release of three of the seven men convicted in their killing was both painful and unjust. The men were reportedly freed under a 2013 law that shaves time off prison terms for good behavior. (Photo from the Cebu Daily News)

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte’s 15-day deadline for the nearly 2,000 released heinous crime convicts to surrender is “too long,” Thelma Chiong, the mother of rape-murder victims Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong, said on Wednesday night.

“I was also surprised why they were given 15 days to surrender,” Thelma Chiong said in an interview with AM radio station DZMM. “Why so long? Fifteen days? Sana one week lang para ma-tokhang na sila.”

“Tokhang,” part of the Duterte administration campaign against illegal drugs, has become associated with the killing of drug suspects, supposedly because they resisted arrest and fought back.

The President specifically mentioned that the freed convicts behind the rape and killing of the Chiong sisters should also surrender.

READ: Duterte to freed heinous crime convicts: Surrender now

Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Nicanor Faeldon earlier confirmed that three of the seven men convicted in the Chiong case had been released under the controversial good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law.

READ: Faeldon confirms release of 3 convicts in Chiong sisters rape-slay case

Chiong doubts, however, that the convicted rapists and murderers would surrender.

“Are there criminals who surrender?” she said. “Some of them [inmates] no longer have a chance of being released. If they [the released convicts] return, they would no longer have a chance to get out again. So why would they surrender?”

But she backed the President’s plan to put a P1 million bounty on the head of each released convict to anyone who could get them dead or alive.

“I earlier told the media about that. There should be a bounty so people would be interested so that they will find Josman, who is the bad body of Cebu City,” Chiong said, referring to Josman Aznar, one of the men convicted in the rape-murder of her daughters.

She believes that the men convicted in the case did not go to Cebu City on their release.

“What I don’t understand, if this is all about having money, how did they get out without money? There’s money involved. Someone paid for them,” she said.

She also noted that the released convicts were not familiar with Metro Manila.

“So how would they know their way out?” she added. “Who got them out [of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa]?”

/atm