Roxas, De Lima asked to answer inmates’ plea vs new rule on good conduct

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court ordered Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II to comment on the petition filed by leaders of the 39,000 inmates of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

The inmates are seeking to declare as unconstitutional the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) on the classification system for good conduct and time allowances” of Republic Act 10592 which took effect on April 18, 2014.

R.A. 10592 amends Articles 29, 94, 97, 98 and 99 Republic Act No. 3812, otherwise known as the Revised Penal Code.

In a two-page resolution dated July 22, 2014 but released Thursday, the high court gave De Lima and Roxas 10 days to comment.

Petitioners are heads  of the Bilibid Malinis Organization, God’s Marshal Rescuer, Inc., Sputnik Brotherhood Organization, Inc.,  Genuine Ilocano Group, Batang City Jail International 32, Commando Organization, and the Interfaith Ministry.

New Bilibid Prison. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

The 39-page petition was filed through their lawyer Michael Evangelista and named  De Lima and Roxas.

They said the IRR violated their rights to due process of law.

“The thrust of this petition is that the subject IRR translates R.A. 10592 as prospective in application. The petitioners believe otherwise for penal law benefitting the accused and inmates shall be retrospective,” the inmates said.

“And if it so, thousands of inmates should have been given their freedom from the moment the law took effect and even before the issuance of the late IRR. And thousands of inmates should be set free much earlier in the future as compared to what the IRR stands,” they added.

The petitioners also asked the high court to stop the IRR’s implementation.

Based on the amended provisions, the local jail will entitle a prisoner to the following deductions from the period of his sentence for good behavior:

During the first two years of imprisonment, the prisoner shall be allowed a deduction of 20 days (up from five days) or each month of good behavior during detention;

In the third to the 5th year, inclusive, of his imprisonment, he shall be allowed a deduction of 23 days (up from eight days) for each month of good behavior during detention;

During the following years until the 10th year, inclusive, of his imprisonment, the prisoner shall be allowed a deduction of 25 days (up from 10 days) for each month of good behavior during detention;

And in the 11th and successive years of his imprisonment, he shall be allowed a deduction of 30 days (up from 15 days) for each month of good behavior during detention; and

At any time during the period of imprisonment, he shall be allowed another deduction of 15 days, in addition to numbers one to four for each month of study, teaching or mentoring service time rendered.

The law states that an appeal by the accused shall not deprive him of entitlement to the allowances for good conduct.

However, the inmates argued that De Lima and Roxas committed grave abuse of when they issued the IRR for R.A. 10592 which violated the long standing “jurisprudential rules” that mandates the retroactivity application of penal laws that are beneficial to the accused and the inmates.

They assailed the respondents for their reasoning that R.A. 10592 shall be applied prospectively because the IRR provide for new procedures and standards of behavior for the grant of good conduct time allowance that requires the creation of a Management, Screening and Evaluation Committee.