By Benjamin Pulta | Philippine News Agency
The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) on Monday said a thousand qualified persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) were released from November 26 to the end of December this year, bringing to 7,707 the number of inmates released for 2024.
In a statement, BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang said of those recently released, 625 completed their maximum sentences, 134 were acquitted, one was granted the motion for release, 38 were granted probation, 190 received parole, 11 were released through habeas corpus, and one was turned over to a local jail.
The released PDLs came from the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City (59), CIW Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (2), CIW Mindanao (18), Davao Prison and Penal Farm (170), Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (111), Leyte Regional Prison (69), New Bilibid Prison (NBP) Maximum Security Camp (199), NBP Medium Security Camp (146), NBP Minimum Security Camp (40), NBP Reception and Diagnostic Center (17), Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm (68), and San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm (101).
Meanwhile, Catapang clarified that qualified inmates convicted of heinous crimes who are now covered by the GCTA (Good Conduct Time Allowance) law under recent rulings by the Supreme Court (SC) will be released at the start of next year in compliance with the procedural guidelines on publication.
The change, Catapang explained, was attributed to the effectivity clause of the law’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR), which states that “the new rules will take effect fifteen days after being published in at least two newspapers of general circulation and filed with the University of the Philippines-Office of the National Administrative Register, as mandated by the Revised Administrative Code of 1987.”
The GCTA is a privilege awarded to a prisoner, whether held or sentenced by final judgment, granting him the opportunity for a reduction of his jail or prison term for every month of actual detention or service of sentence as a reward for good conduct and exemplary behavior.