DOJ chief: Gov’t may suspend good conduct time allowance

MANILA, Philippines — Following the public outrage over the almost impending release of convicted rapist-murderer and former town Mayor Antonio Sanchez, the government may suspend the processing of good conduct time allowances (GCTAs) for qualified prisoners, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) expressed concern that last week’s controversy regarding Sanchez may be used to justify the revival of the death penalty.

In his statement on Saturday, Guevarra said, “We are considering seriously the need to temporarily suspend the process of GCTAs till the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) guidelines are reviewed and firmed up. The BuCor will henceforth base its actions on any new guidelines that will come out.”

He said that prisoners hoping to be released early, following the Supreme Court’s decision on the retroactive application of Republic Act  No. 10592 regarding the GCTA, need not worry.

“This is just temporary. The processing will be quicker if the guidelines are orderly and clearer,” the secretary said.

‘We’ll do what is right’

Guevarra said that the 11,000 prisoners whose GCTAs were being recomputed would just have to “wait a little” because the retroactive effect given to the law suddenly created “a deluge” of GCTAs for recomputation.

“Please be assured that the DOJ is doing its best to implement the law without any extralegal, political, or other considerations. We just do what is legal and what is right,” he added.

‘Tough process’

On Sen. Leila de Lima’s accusation that he flip-flopped on the Sanchez case because he should have known all along that the convicted mayor was really disqualified from the law’s coverage, Guevarra said, “[She] is free to think what she wants to think.”

“It’s been a tough process of interpreting the wordings of a law that has certain ambiguities in its provisions. In the end, however, it is the spirit and the intention of the law that guided us in taking a position,” the justice chief also said, partly in response to other critics.

The CBCP, for its part, said that the administration shouldn’t use Sanchez’s case to gain the public’s favor in the plan to revive the death penalty.

“It seems like what they are saying is if there was death penalty, Sanchez would have been on the death row and we wouldn’t be having this problem. The issue is being politicized now. It appears that they want to make this as their argument in reviving the death penalty,” said Rudy Diamante, executive secretary of the CBCP-Episcopal Commission on Prison and Pastoral Care, over Church-run Radyo Veritas.

Not eligible for pardon

“Everybody believes that a person should be given a second chance, but he should be able to show some goodness. In the case of Sanchez, he violated prison rules when shabu was confiscated from him,” Diamante also said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said that there should be absolute life imprisonment for heinous crime offenders, drug traffickers, drug lords and convicted terrorists— that is, they should not be eligible for pardon or parole.

Lacson said he would seek the amendment of RA 10592, which prescribes GCTA for prisoners, so that those convicted of certain crimes would not get this privilege.

“No ifs, no buts — no discretion on the part of the courts and the executive department. It is time to put a limit to executive clemency judicial discretion when it comes to crime that put society at a deadly risk,” he said in a text message.