SHORTER JAIL TERM BENEFITS 70 CITY JAIL INMATES EVERY MONTH

EVERY month, up to 70 inmates of the Cebu City Jail are able to walk free after their jail terms were shortened through the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law.

Cebu City Jail Warden Renante Rubio said they monitor all the 5,840 inmates housed in the facility since everyone is qualified to be granted GCTA, except those who committed heinous crimes.

Rubio said they regularly check who among the inmates have committed infractions or any violation inside the jail, such as using and selling illegal drugs, which would make them ineligible for the GCTA for the month.

If inmates show good conduct and behavior every month, up to 15 days are subtracted from their jail term, Rubio said.

Every cell is monitored by one jail personnel.

Republic Act 10592, which was passed in 2013, raises the GCTA for inmates. The GCTA, earned as a reward for a prisoner who shows good behavior, is deducted from the jail term he was meted.

At the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), which currently has 2,405 inmates, as many as 27 inmates are released every month.

CPDRC Warden Reynaldo Valmoria said that since he assumed as jail warden in 2018, at least 1,000 inmates benefited from the law and have since been released.

Among the 1,000 inmates who were released since the law was implemented in 2014, around 80 percent were set free earlier than scheduled because of their reduced jail term through the GCTA. The rest were inmates who served full sentences, said Valmoria.

Valmoria said they stopped accepting new inmates starting this year on orders of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia to decongest the facility.

RA 10592 was signed into law in 2013 by then president Benigno Aquino III.

The Implementing Rules and Regulations indicated that the law would apply prospectively only, or to those who were sentenced after the law was passed.

The Supreme Court, however, approved the inmates’ petition and made the law retroactive on June 25, 2019.