Solon wants convicted drug lords exiled to West Philippine Sea

Philippine Daily Inquirer | September 16, 2019

Instead of housing convicted drug lords in New Bilibid Prison (NBP) where they could still enjoy special
privileges just by bribing prison guards, they should instead be exiled to the West Philippines Sea to
“survive on their own.”

Anti-Crime and Terrorism Community Involvement and Support (ACT-CIS) Party-list Rep. Niña Taduran
proposed this on Monday, noting that while these convicts are in the national penitentiary, they are still
able to continue their trade with a simple cellphone and by bribing the prison guards and officials.

Taduran said they should instead be placed on an island in the West Philippine Sea where there is “no
cellphone signal, no guards to bribe and no means of escape.”

“There are numerous islets in the West Philippine Sea near Pagasa island being claimed by the
Philippines, where someone with the ingenuity and resourcefulness of these convicted drug lords could
survive on their own,” Taduran said in a statement.

Since the country’s military is already patrolling the area, they would only need to make sure that no
one leaves or enters these islands, she said.

Aside from solving the problems hounding the NBP, Taduran said the proposal could also beneficial on
another aspect: strengthening the Philippines’ claim over the West Philippine Sea.

“The move would solve not only all the problems hounding the NBP at the moment, but also help the
Philippine government assert its claim over these islands in the West Philippine Sea, by populating them
with Filipino prisoners,” the party-list lawmaker said.

She added that all other prisoners in NBP might as well be transferred to other penal colonies and the
New Bilibid complex be sold to the private sector, the proceeds of which could be used to fund the
Duterte government’s “Build, Build, Build” program.

“Nasa likod lang ng Ayala Alabang ang NBP, mas pakikinabangan ng pamahalaan kung ibebenta na lang
ang lupang ‘yan, kaysa patirahin diyan ang mga pasaway na druglords,” she said.

DOJ, DILG complete, sign revised IRR of GCTA law

The Philippine Daily Inquirer | September 16, 2019

The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has
completed and signed the revised Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Republic Act 10592,
or the law that increases the time slashed from the prison term of convicts due to good behavior.

Included in the revised IRR is a clarified provision stating “recidivists, habitual delinquents, escapists and
those convicted of heinous crimes” are disqualified to benefit from the good conduct time allowance
(GCTA).

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra explained that as a guide on what heinous crimes are, the revised
IRR has adopted the definition of heinous crimes under Republic Act 7659 or the Death Penalty Law as
well as Supreme Court jurisprudence.

Under the Death Penalty Law, heinous crimes are the following: murder, rape, big-time drug trafficking,
kidnapping for ransom, treason, piracy, qualified bribery, parricide, infanticide, plunder, kidnapping and
serious illegal detention, robbery with violence or intimidation, qualified vehicle theft, and arson.

Guevarra said a Management Screening and Evaluation Committee (MSEC) will look into the time credits
and grant of time allowances to entitled persons deprived of liberties (PDLs). Aside from DOJ, Guevarra
said accredited civil society organization will also be part of the deliberation.

And as part of transparency, Guevarra said the revised IRR included the publication of the names of PDLs
that may be due for release because of GCTA on the website of concerned government agencies such as
DOJ and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

Meanwhile, the DOJ-DILG review committee will have 60 more days to complete their work on the
Uniform Policy and Guidelines regarding computation of credits and allowances. This is the same
committee that completed the revised IRR of RA 10592.
The creation of the joint committee stemmed after reports came out that former Calauan Mayor
Antonio Sanchez – serving the penalty of nine counts of reclusion perpetua – was due for release on
good conduct.

Last month’s news of Sanchez’s impending release resulted in public outrage that eventually spawned a
Senate investigation on BuCor and New Bilibid Prison, and led to the cancellation of the rapist-
murderer’s early freedom.

BuCor to resume releasing qualified GCTA inmates

Rappler.com | September 16, 2019

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Tuesday, September 16, that the Bureau of Corrections
(BuCor) may now resume releasing convicts who are qualified under the Good Conduct Time Allowance
(GCTA) law based on a new internal rule.

The new and revised implementing rules and regulations (IRR) now categorically excludes heinous crime
convicts from Republic Act No. 10592 or the 2013 GCTA law.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that if the prisoner is not a heinous crime convict and his
records are clean with no contention, he can be released now. The Department of Justice (DOJ)
previously suspended the processing of early releases based on GCTA pending the review of the IRR.

"Sayang din 'yung time (we do not want to waste time), we are very concerned about those who need to
be released because they deserve it and we don't want them to wait too long," Guevarra said on
Tuesday as he and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año signed the new IRR.

Guevarra and Año extended to another 60 days the revision of a supplemental manual, but Guevarra
said the BuCor can start releasing model prisoners now.

Guevarra clarified that pending the new manual, the releases may be "subject to further revisions of the
manual."

"We don't see any legal obstacle for those who properly obtained or accumulated (good conduct time
allowance), they are qualified, there is no issue as to the correctness or validity of the grant of their
good conduct time allowances, no issue of maybe there was corruption involved – absent that...then
there should be no reason why they should not be released immediately," Guevarra said in a mix of
English and Filipino.

Warrantless arrest

Because of the new IRR, many heinous crime convicts will be affected. If they were detained before
2013, they can only avail of a much lesser GCTA under the Revised Penal Code; if they were detained
after 2013, they cannot avail of any type of GCTA whatsoever.

This means that some of the 1,914 heinous crime convicts already released on GCTA may stay in jail
much longer – that is, if they heed President Rodrigo Duterte's call to surrender in 15 days or else be
treated as fugitives. (READ: Legal issues hound Duterte order for 1,914 convicts to surrender)

As of 5 pm on Tuesday, September 16, a total of 658 out of the 1,914 have already surrendered and are
in the custody of the BuCor.

The presidential callout expires on Thursday, September 19.

"We gave you notice, we gave you a grace period of 15 days, you refused without justifiable reason. In
effect, you are committing the offense of evasion of sentence, so there is reason, legal basis to have you
arrested because that is a continuing offense," Guevarra said.

Guevarra added, "Each minute, each hour, each day that you refuse to turn yourself in, is a commission
of an offense and for that, law enforcement agencies can arrest you even without a warrant."

Guevarra and Año said those who are qualified under the GCTA – those who are not heinous crime
convicts – have nothing to worry about surrendering.

"Kung talaga namang qualified sila, makakawala din naman sila," Año said.
Over 500 GCTA-freed convicts back in jail
Rappler.com | September 14, 2019

Over 500 convicts who have been freed through the controversial Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA)
law have been rearrested, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Saturday, September 14.

"As of today, a total of 505 have surrendered and in BuCor’s custody," DOJ Undersecretary Markk Perete
told reporters in a text message.

Why the surrenders?

The convicts were released through the GCTA law. Passed in 2013, the law allowed prisoners to cut
down their incarcretation time if they behave behind bars.

Since the law's enactment in 2013, the government claimed that a total of 1,914 heinous crime convicts
have already been released on the basis of the good conduct provisions spelled out in the GCTA.

It was declared retroactively applicable by the Supreme Court in June 2019, igniting a public outcry over
the possible release of convicted murderer and rapist Antonio Sanchez. That botched release of Sanchez
led to calls for review of the law and the legitimacy of its beneficiaries.

Why this matters: With immense pressure on the government on its implementation of the GCTA law,
President Rodrigo Duterte on September 5 ordered all heinous crime convicts released through good
conduct to surrender or be arrested by the PNP.

The PNP and the BuCor have been using a rushed and unchecked list as basis for the rearrests, however,
and so far, they have also been arresting GCTA beneficiaries who were not convicted of heinous crimes.

IN NUMBERS: The freed 1,914 heinous crime convicts

Rappler.com | September 11, 2019

Designed to reform the prison system, the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law has exposed,
ironically, what continues to ail Philippine jails.

The scandal triggered by the now-botched release of convicted murder and rapist Antonio Sanchez has
caused the suspension of the law, the dismissal of a prisons chief, and the administrative punishment of
his deputies. It has also exposed a new form of corruption inside the New Bilibid Prison – "GCTA for
sale."

But since the law's enactment in 2013, the government claimed that a total of 1,914 heinous crime
convicts have already been released on the basis of the good conduct provisions spelled out in the
GCTA.

On President Rodrigo Duterte's orders, the Philippine National Police (PNP) is in the thick of putting each
back in jail again. To Duterte, their freedom has become "null and void."

Who are these hundreds who have just been freed but are set to be imprisoned again?

Rappler obtained and analyzed the complete list of the 1,914 from a source in the PNP. This is the list
that's being used as basis for the rearrests. Here's what we found:

 Not all of the 1,914 heinous crime convicts were released because of the GCTA law
 Most of them are murder and rape convicts just like Sanchez, the former Calauan mayor
 Most of them were released under the Duterte administration
 Most of them are from Eastern Visayas

The list of 1,914 obtained by Rappler ends its count on August 13, a week before news broke that
Sanchez was going to be released due to the GCTA. The processing of GCTA releases was suspended on
August 26.

Are they really 1,914?

Of the freed heinous crime convicts, most of them – 1,687 – were released after their time in prison was
slashed through the GCTA.
But the rest, or a total of 227, were released under circumstances not directly related to the GCTA.

At least 213 of them were released through “parole,” according to the list, which means that they were
allowed to complete their sentences outside detention by the Board of Pardons and Parole.

The factors that can affect the granting of parole include good behavior, but this is not related to the
same system put in place by the GCTA, where the time to be served is reduced through good behavior.

BuCor also accounted for 14 who have been released through pardon, a path to freedom independent
of GCTA as it is granted by the President – regardless of good conduct.

The list also does not include other reported heinous crimes convicts who were freed, like the Chiong
murder convicts who were released in the last two weeks of August 2019 (at least two have
surrendered).

Most of the released prisoners were convicts in rape and murder. The 1,914 convicts tally 805 rape
convictions and 813 murder convictions. Three of the 1,914 were convicted of both.

The two crimes make up the majority of the offenses of the freed prisoners, followed far by robbery, a
crime that 255 prisoners were found guilty of committing.

Drug convicts comprise a relatively small chunk of the freed convicts: 48. Of this number, 38 were
convicted of illegal drugs sale, 7 for possession, then one each for importation, cultivation, and
conspiracy.

There were 29 freed inmates convicted of parricide or killing a parent. One was convicted of triple
murder.

The 1,914 were classified as heinous criminals based on Republic Act 7659.

Most of the convicts were released under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.

His administration set free 1,618 convicts in 3 years – from July 1, 2016 up to August 2019.

This number dwarfs the releases under the Aquino administration – 296 in 3 years, from July 2013 to
June 2016. During the first year of the law in 2013, only one prisoner was released through GCTA.

On average, the Duterte administration released 496 heinous crime convicts per year in 3 years, while
the Aquino administration only released 98 per year within the same time period.

This year alone, 816 have been released, which is more than double the number of convicts released in
the 3 years that the law was enforced under Aquino.

Senators probing the controversial releases unearthed two possible factors behind the rise in the
number of freed convicts in the last 3 years:

The first is that the BuCor under Duterte skipped the rule that the Department of Justice Secretary must
be the final approving authority for GCTA releases for prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment.

The second is the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2019, or barely two months before the scandal
broke, to allow the government to apply the GCTA law retroactively – covering prisoners convicted
before the law was passed in 2013. But if this were the sole reason for this year's big numbers, this
means BuCor worked overtime from June to facilitate the releases – something that a whistle-blower
alluded to in a Senate hearing last week.

Most of them are from Eastern Visayas

Most of the freed convicts, 363 of them, registered their addresses to be in Eastern Visayas.

Eastern Visayas is followed by Metro Manila, where 255 resided before their imprisonment.

The regions which were listed least as the place of residence by the freed convicts are the Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (7 convicts), the Cordillera Administrative Region (25
convicts), and Soccsksargen (37 convicts).

The province which was called home by most convicts is also in the Eastern Visayas – Leyte, which
registered a tally of 224.
A far second after Leyte is Cebu, with 109 convicts registering their address in the thriving province in
Central Visayas.

However, not all of them call the Philippines home.

Some 15 foreigners registered their home addresses to be in other countries: 7 from Hong Kong, 5 from
Malaysia, then one each from Taiwan, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates.

One released convict did not list an address.