BuCor to study if Veloso qualifies for GCTA benefits

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) will form a board to study if Mary Jane Veloso is qualified for the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) benefits, according to its chief General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr.

Last December 13, the Department of Justice and the Department of Interior and Local Government signed the revised implementing rules and regulations for the GCTA law. Under the revised version, all persons deprived of liberty, including those convicted of heinous crimes, are now eligible for GCTA benefits.

READ: Mary Jane Veloso returns home after 14 years

“We will form a board to study that. Unfortunately, the records sent to us are all in Bahasa, we have to translate that,” Catapang said in a press briefing inside the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City.

“Anyway, in due time, [we] will be able to know if Mary Jane is qualified for the GCTA, and if there’s a GCTA, has she served the minimum so that will entitle her to parole, at our level we can recommend that,” he added.

The implementing rules of Republic Act 10592, also known as the GCTA Law, defines GCTA as “a privilege granted to a prisoner, whether detained or convicted by final judgment, entitling him to a reduction of his jail or prison term for every month of actual detention or service of sentence as a reward for good conduct and exemplary behavior.”

Earlier, BuCor said the aircraft carrying Veloso arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 in Pasay City at around 5:40 a.m.

She was immediately brought to the Correctional Institute for Women at around 7:06 a.m.

Veloso will stay at the Reception and Diagnostic Center of the CIW for a five-day quarantine and 55-day orientation, diagnostic evaluation, and initial security classification, the BuCor earlier disclosed.

Inside the CIW, Veloso reunited with her two sons and other members of her family, accompanied by her lawyers.

In a short interview with the media, Veloso said that she is very happy to return to the Philippines.

She also appealed to President Marcos to grant her clemency or “the conditional release of a prisoner from correctional institution after serving the minimum period of prison sentence.”

Veloso’s return follows an agreement between Jakarta and Manila, which was revealed by Marcos and the Department of Foreign Affairs last November 19.

Veloso was sentenced to death in October 2010 after she was caught carrying 2.6 kilograms of heroin inside her suitcase at Yogyakarta airport in Indonesia on April 25 of the same year.