MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker questioned on Thursday the legality of the order to re-arrest heinous crime convicts who were freed because of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law.
Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate asked the Department of Justice (DOJ) if freed convicts could be rearrested without a court order or a warrant should they choose not to surrender.
Zarate raised the issue in relation to the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte that freed heinous crime convicts should surrender within 15 days to the nearest police station or military camp or be considered as “fugitives.”
“If I were you, I would surrender to the nearest police or military detachment wherever you are now because I do not need to have a warrant,” the President said in a press conference on Wednesday
“I will just order them and I take full responsibility for this. And all the consequences connected with this decision will be mine and mine alone,” he added.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that freed convicts who refuse to surrender in the given period could be viewed as “evasion of sentence,” which he said, is a crime that could warrant a warrantless arrest.
“You were given the opportunity to voluntarily surrender to complete your sentence. You refuse without justification then you are evading your sentence,” Guevarra said during the House appropriations committee hearing on the DOJ’s 2020 budget.
“If you are evading your sentence, you are committing another crime and that is a continuing crime for each day each minute, each hour that you do not comply with your sentence. For that reason, even a warrantless arrest may be possible because it is a continuing offense,” he added.
Zarate then questioned how “evading sentence” is determined when it is the presumption of the convict that he or she was freed under the GCTA law.
He added that the granting of time allowance to convicts is “irrevocable” under the said law.
“Hindi ho kaya we are sacrifing some substantive rights just because we want na maremedyuhan kaagad itong nangayaring pagkakamali dito sa implementation ng batas,” the party-list representative said.
“We are even violating the rights of many individuals na sila naman, not all, ay noong nasa kulungan ay ginampanan nila ‘yung kanilang responsibilidad bilang nakakulong kaya sila nagqualify doon sa batas,” he added.
Guevarra said the DOJ understands the argument of Zarate and acknowledged that the rights of certain people are at stake in this issue.
“I guess, only the courts can determine if in fact arresting them (freed convicts) without a warrant on the theory that they are evading sentence which is a crime by itself, is something that is contrary to law,” Guevarra said.
“Hopefully somebody would bring up this matter to court and the court will make the appropriate resolution or decision,” he added.
The DOJ’s proposed budget for 2020 amounts to P21.7 billion, which Guevarra said is only .68% higher than its budget this year which is at P21.6 billion. It also only accounts .53% of the proposed P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget.
The justice chief said its original 2020 budget proposal was P36.7 billion. /muf