DOJ said a total of 2,009 released due to GCTA surrendered

September 20, 2019

The Department of Justice ( DOJ) on Friday said a total of 2,009 persons have surrendered before the September 19 deadline set by President Rodrigo Duterte expired.

Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said 1,773 are under custody of Bureau of Corrections and 236 with the Philippine National Police.

He said those in the custody of the BuCor are at the minimum security facility at the New Bilibid Prison.

Perete said the 2,009 surrenderers is more than the original list by BuCor, which named 1,914 convicts who have been released since 2013 due to good conduct time allowance (GCTA).

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered all 1,914 released convicts to surrender due to concerns not all were qualified to benefit from GCTA, which excludes convicts of heinous crimes.

Perete said cases of those who surrendered are being “evaluated by the Bureau of Corrections and by the Department of Justice.”

“If it becomes apparent that these individuals are to be excluded from the list then they would be released immediately,” he said.

Perete said the DOJ and BuCor are trying to find out if there are other persons who have not surrendered.

Perete admitted that the list of 1,914 released convicts is flawed and, because of this, BuCor is making a “cleaned up” list.

“We are also cleaning up the list of those who have not yet surrendered but who have committed heinous crimes and should be excluded from the benefit of 10592,” he said.

“Our initial evaluation of the list provided to us by the Bureau of Corrections would place the number to be removed at around 41. These are the individuals who have been pardoned and paroled,” he added. DMS