MANILA, Philippines — About 400 surrendered inmates freed under good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law were released from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) spokesperson said Friday.
“So far, meron na po tayo napa-release na [GCTA] returnees. Meron pang mga natirang returnees na patuloy pa ina-assess yung kanilang carpeta… ‘yung record,” BuCor spokesperson Wena Fe Dalagan told dzMM in an interview.
(We have released GCTA returnees. Although, there are still some returnees remaining. The carpeta or records of some returnees are still under assessment.)
“Ang released po natin diyan estimate ko lang ito… ay nasa 400 yung na-release (We released, though this is only an estimate, over 400 GCTA returnees),” Dalagan added.
Dalagan said the BuCor is working with Department of Justice’s (DOJ) oversight committee on GCTA to validate the list of GCTA returnees.
Previously, DOJ announced that 1,773 prisoners are under the BuCor while 236 are with the Philippine National Police.
DOJ said the number of surrendered convicts exceeded the count of heinous crime convicts who were asked to surrender as per the order of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The required number is 1,1914 which means that some detainees that yielded to law enforcement agencies may not have been convicted of heinous crimes.
READ: DOJ: 2,009 GCTA-freed prisoners have surrendered
‘Sick, aged inmates’
Meanwhile, Dalagan said 90 “aged and sickly” inmates at the national penitentiary were already being treated in hospitals.
“So far po, na-identify natin na nasa 90 na po ang na-list, progressive na sila para mabigyan ng proper medical assessment,”
(We identified 90 aged and sickly inmates in the list. They are progressive and will be given proper medical assessment.)
Dalagan said they also requested with the Department of Social and Welfare Development to give medical assistance to sickly inmates. /je