58,000 prisoners with minor offenses released since 2014

A total of 58,000 inmates with light criminal offenses have been released from custody of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in compliance with Republic Act 10592 or the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law.

During the hearing for the 2020 budget of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) at the Senate yesterday, BJMP chief Allan Iral told senators that the releases started in 2014 or a year after enactment of the law.

All releases, he noted, were sanctioned by various regional trial courts and municipal trial courts.

“The 58,000 released prisoners were on top of the 22,000 convicts, including the 1,914 convicted for heinous crimes freed from the NBP (New Bilibid Prison),” Iral said.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon pointed out that the GCTA was enacted to address the issue on jail congestion and is supposed to benefit aging prisoners and those with good behavior.

DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said that at present the BJMP recorded a congestion rate of 396 percent, which is considered an improvement to the 2017 situation with 600 percent congestion.

“The improvement in the condition was due to the construction of additional jails and the GCTA,” he added.

Drilon said he would propose a measure to restructure the penal system—national and local— in the country after the BJMP leadership informed the Senate that there are different jails—municipal, city, district and provincial as well as national.

“I will file a bill for the restructuring of the penal system. We should have two—the national and the local… For better management, we are going to sponsor a bill restructuring the penal system so that we have only two to bring to fore the implementation of GCTA,” he explained.

According to Iral BJMP only has jurisdiction over municipal, city and district jails. Provincial jails are under provincial government while national prisons are under the Bureau of Corrections.

He added that those under BJMP custody are persons sentenced to less than three years. Those who are meted four years to reclusion perpetua (life imprisonment) for committing serious or heinous crimes are immediately transferred to the NBP in Muntinlupa City.

Sen. Francis Tolentino reminded DILG and BJMP officials that they should have a GCTA manual different from the NBP.

Año said a technical working group is already conducting meetings to determine loopholes in the manual.