Año asks local officials to check BuCor’s list of inmates convicted of heinous crimes i

September 17, 2019

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Tuesday asked local chief executives to check the Bureau of Correction ( BuCor) list of inmates who are convicted of heinous crimes and freed under good conduct and time allowance (GCTA) law and urge them to surrender before the 15-day period lapses.

"We ask the local government officials and barangay captains to look at the list and see if any of them are living under their jurisdiction. If there is, then it is their obligation to encourage these PDLs (Persons Deprived of Liberty) to voluntarily surrender to the Philippine National Police (PNP)," says Año.

"The President gave those them a grace period of 15 days to turn themselves in and if they do not, then the PNP will arrest them," Año said.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s 15-day surrender period will end on September 19. 

According to DILG chief, 612 freed inmates have surrendered to the PNP and Bureau of Corrections as of September 16.

Based on data from PNP, out of the 457 inmates who surrendered, 268 were  turned over to BuCor while six are dead and one was arrested.

However, only 171 out of the 1,914 inmates in the list surrendered while the remaining 326 who surrendered were not in the list.

“Not listed were those who were released for other offenses who were granted GCTA... they are not (convicted) of heinous crimes,” PNP Deputy Spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Kimberly Molitas said in a press briefing.

She said they are still waiting for the final list from BuCor for them to properly conduct whatever the task will be given to them.

The PNP earlier clarified they don’t have the numbers of those who directly surrendered to BuCor.

Molitas said PNP tracker teams are ready once the grace period is over, but they will have to wait for an order from DILG and the Department of Justice for the deployment.

“The statement of our Police General (Oscar) Albayalde about the tracker teams, that is in a way a preparation for the PNP. But we still have to wait for the proper directives from DILG and DOJ on what will be our way forward after the 15 days,” she said.

“The PNP is ready to deploy the tracker teams to look for those inmates who did not surrender,” she added. Ella Dionisio/DMS