MANILA, Philippines–The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating a report that a surrenderer has escaped from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).
Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said an initial report showed that the inmate who escaped the national penitentiary had been previously released but not on good conduct time allowance.
“We are investigating this incident. Initial report indicates that the previous release of the PDL in question was non-GCTA (good conduct time allowance) related,” said Perete.
“Nevertheless, we are looking into any liability on the part of those who are supposed to ensure security in our prison facilities,” Perete added.
Meanwhile, he said there are already Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) or inmates that are already up for release because they were previously released on court orders, commutation of sentence, pardon and parole before President Rodrigo Duterte issued the call for surrender.
“The Oversight Committee on Corrections has constituted a panel to verify each and every release. We have met in the past days and will meet again this afternoon with the relevant BuCor (Bureau of Corrections) officers whose task is to justify each and every recommendation for release,” Perete said.
“It’s a tedious process but called for under thr circumstances. Considering the number of PDLs involved, we plan to release in tranches,” he said adding that the Joint Task Force continues to comb through the prison records and carpetas at the Senate.
“As of yesterday, they have reviewed close to a hundred records. We will eventually use their output to come up with a cleaned up list of GCTA-related cases,” said Perete.
Based on the original list by the BuCor, of the 445 heinous crimes convicts released by the previous administration, 64 were acquitted and 27 were granted parole.
On the other hand, of the 1,914 heinous crimes convicts released by the Duterte administration, 64 were acquitted, 228 were granted parole, 18 received conditional pardon from the President himself while one was released on habeas corpus. /muf
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