‘Twist of fate:’ Senate probe into GCTA a reunion for Gordon, Faeldon

MANILA, Philippines — A Senate inquiry into the implementation of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law would serve as a reunion for Senator Richard Gordon and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon said.

Earlier, Drilon filed a resolution asking the Senate justice and human rights committee, which Gordon heads, to investigate the eligibility of convicted rapist-murderer and former Calauan, Laguna mayor Antonio Sanchez to benefit from Republic Act 10592 or the GCTA law.

READ: Sanchez’s drug case cited in Drilon’s call to probe ex-mayor’s eligibility for early release from prison

“I have not been notified yet by Senator Gordon,” Drilon said in a weekly press forum on Wednesday when asked when the hearing would be conducted.

“It will be conducted by the committee on justice since it involves the implementation of the law by the [BuCor] and on the side, there should be another confrontation between Senator Gordon and Director Faeldon,” he pointed out.

In 2018, Faeldon was arrested and detained at the Senate due to his refusal to participate in the ongoing investigation of the Senate blue ribbon committee, also chaired by Gordon, into the alleged corruption at the Bureau of Customs (BoC), which the now BuCor chief headed at the time.

READ: Gordon, Faeldon set off Senate’s BoC corruption hearing in verbal brawl 

“May reunion sila. (They will have a reunion) Twist of fate. Si Faeldon is the director now of the Bureau of Corrections and  the [chair of the] Committee on Justice is Dick Gordon so they will have a reunion,” Drilon further said.

The BuCor and the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Sanchez was among the 11,000 inmates to be released in two months after a recomputation of their GCTA pursuant of RA 10592.

GCTA is earned as a reward for an inmate’s good behavior and deducted from the jail term that a prisoner needs to serve.

But Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra recently ordered the suspension of the processing of the early release for good conduct of thousands of inmates.

READ: DOJ suspends early release of convicts

Even President Rodrigo Duterte ordered both the BuCor and the DOJ to block the early release of Sanchez.

READ: Duterte to DOJ, BuCor: Don’t release Sanchez

Sanchez and six of his henchmen were convicted by the Pasig Regional Trial Court in 1995 for the rape and murder of University of the Philippines student Eileen Sarmenta and the killing of her friend Allan Gomez.

“But for the sake of better implementation of the law, I hope this hearing will be done and calmly, so that we can really give justice to the family of Sarmenta and Gomez,” Drilon added. /muf