BuCor: 2 more months to process GCTA returnees

Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra on Wednesday, January 15, said it would take two more months for the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) to process and determine if the over 400 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) who were released under good conduct time allowance (GCTA) are really entitled to be out of prison.

A total of 410 prisoners released on GCTA last year and who surrendered are now at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. Twenty-four returnees are at the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum, Guevarra said BuCor has requested that it be given until March this year to process the remaining PDLs under GCTA.

Guevarra said he told BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag: “Okay, we will give you that grace period that you are requesting on one condition and that condition is during the interim, while these PDLs are awaiting the processing of their papers, make sure that they are properly fed, properly accommodated, and they are safe."

"Some of these people are supposed to be already out so they should not be mixed with those incarcerated," he added.

He said the returnees (PDLs who surrendered) were asking certification to prove that they really are free.

But he said before such certification could be issued, BuCor has to check the records of each returnee.

Guevarra explained that those released on GCTA and who were later ordered by President Duterte to surrender “are those convicted of heinous crimes, habitual delinquents, and recidivists.”

“There are 1,900 in the list prepared by BuCor but 2,300 surrendered,” he said.

Thus, he said, those over 400 returnees in the NBP now should not have surrendered but they did.

“They could have just remained free but they chose to turn themselves in either because they did not understand what the intention of the President was,” he stressed.

“Probably they were afraid that they may be arrested and if they resist, they would be shot,” he said.

Guevarra admitted that the confusion on who were ordered to surrender created the problem for BuCor since the bureau has to determine who among the returnees are entitled to be free and who should be returned to jail.

Another problem that caused the delay was the return of the records to the BuCor by the Senate which conducted an investigation into the GCTA controversy.