Inmates released under GCTA from Aquino admin to Duterte presidency

FILE – Then President-elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte and outgoing President Benigno S. Aquino III meet at the President’s Hall Sala in Malacañang for a courtesy call before the formal inaugural ceremony begins on June 30, 2016. MALACAÑANG POOL PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The past administration has released 354 inmates convicted because of heinous crimes as part of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA), while the current leadership released 1,429 from July 2016 to May 2019, numbers obtained by INQUIRER.net showed.

Data based on the first list the Bureau of Corrections provided to the Senate, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), 194 prisoners convicted of rape were released under former President Benigno Aquino III, although only 168 were released due to the GCTA.  Another 21 were ultimately acquitted while five were paroled.

With drug-related charges, out of the 105 convicted, nine were eventually acquitted, three were given parole, and 93 were released through GCTA.  In murder cases, 126 were convicted, out of which 27 were acquitted, 18 were granted parole, and 81 released via GCTA.

The number of released prisoners significantly increased under the term of President Rodrigo Duterte.  There were 745 rape convicts released — 658 of those through GCTA.  Another 30 were acquitted while 57 were paroled.

With drug-related cases — President Rodrigo Duterte’s core campaign — 156 were convicted, of which 13 each got acquitted and given parole, while 130 were freed under GCTA.

Freed murder convicts also increased to 748 — 590 of which were due to the GCTA, 28 through eventual acquittals, 119 from parole, and one due to a petition for writ of habeas corpus.

Under Republic Act No. 10592, which amended Article 29 of the Revised Penal Code, inmates can be released by counting their GCTA against their jail sentences.  However, heinous crime convicts, numbering around 1,914, were supposedly also released even if the law disallows it.

READ: Duterte to freed heinous crime convicts: Surrender now 

Current officials have blamed Senator Leila de Lima and former Senator Mar Roxas II for the blunder because they — as former justice and interior secretaries — allegedly failed to scrutinize the Implementing Rules and Regulations properly./ac

READ: Roxas, De Lima told: Explain non-exclusion of heinous crime convicts in GCTA’s IRR

READ: Martires to probe De Lima, Roxas on GCTA mess if he’s not satisfied with replies