Trackers out for convicts who missed Duterte deadline

The Philippine National Police starts deploying tracker teams Friday to go after hundreds of heinous crime convicts who have not surrendered after being freed prematurely through a law that rewards good behavior in detention.

On Sept. 4, after firing Bucor chief Nicanor Faeldon over the prisoner releases, President Duterte gave more than 2,000 freed convicts up to Sept. 19 to surrender for a review of their good conduct credits or they would be hunted down.

As of noon Thursday, 1,304 convicts had surrendered, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

It was not clear, however, exactly how many more needed to be accounted for.

New list

“We will be transmitting a new list to the [Department of the Interior and Local Government], which will serve as their guide in implementing the rearrest of those who did not surrender,” Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said.

Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac, spokesperson for the PNP, said in a statement that the manhunt would begin Friday.

“We are just awaiting … the revised list to be provided by the [DOJ], as many convicts [had gone] directly to the Bureau of Corrections,” Banac said in a statement.

Banac was in Vietnam together with Gen. Oscar Albayalde, the PNP chief, for the 39th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Chiefs of Police conference.

President Duterte on Tuesday offered P1 million for the capture of convicts who had not surrendered, but Banac said on Thursday that the manhunt would go on even without a reward.

He said, however, that “a reward may be helpful” in getting informants to give away the location of convicts who refused to surrender.

BuCor racket

It is also unclear how many of the convicts have been freed after paying for good conduct time allowance to corrupt Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officials.

The Senate is investigating the sale of good conduct credits following admission last week by the wife of a New Bilibid Prison inmate that she paid P50,000 to BuCor officers for the early release of her husband.

The witness, Yolanda Camilon, named Corrections Officer 3 Veronica Buño as her contact in the BuCor but Buño denied knowing and having communications with her.

But confronted on Thursday with evidence from the National Bureau of Investigation, which analyzed her cell phone, Buño admitted that she had been communicating with Camilon through text messages and that she had texted her once about a meeting with Sr. Insp. Benilda Bansil about Camilon’s agreement with “Sir Chito,” referring to BuCor documents chief Ramoncito Roque.

Buño insisted, however, that she did not know Camilon personally.

Senators Richard Gordon and Franklin Drilon urged Buño to tell all she knew about the racket, with Gordon, chair of the justice committee, saying she could become a witness—suggesting Senate protection.

‘A measure of cooperation’

When Buño declined to answer, Gordon gave her time to consider her next move and referred her to lawyers whom she could consult.

Roque was freed by the justice committee on Thursday, along with BuCor legal division chief Fredric Santos and Bilibid medical officer Ursicio Cenas.

They were detained in the Senate last week after being cited for contempt for giving evasive answers to the senators’ questions about the sale of good conduct credits in the BuCor.

Gordon said the three had begun to cooperate in the inquiry.

“We received a letter from one of them and it was the subject of the questions I asked earlier,” Gordon told reporters.

“There’s some measure of cooperation and one of them became more forthright,” he said. —REPORTS FROM JEANNETTE I. ANDRADE, DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN AND LEILA B. SALAVERRIA