(Eagle News) — Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon admonished the Public Attorneys Office for allegedly sitting on petitions for the release of over 800 prisoners who could be eligible for such as early as a year ago.
According to Drilon, 862 prisoners have been revealed to be entitled for the release under Republic Act 10951, but only 39 petitions have been filed by PAO with the Supreme Court, and 12 with the Regional Trial Court.
RA 10951, which Drilon authored, adjusted what the senator said were the outdated amounts in the Revised Penal Code that were based on the value of money in 1932, benefiting inmates who are mostly poor, were given excessive fines for petty crimes and were given long sentences.
He added that since the passage of the law in August 2017, only two prisoners have been released.
“There are 862 inmates who could have been released but are still languishing in jail because of the bureaucracy that is responding slowly. Ano ba naman yan? Without any conscience, they let 862 inmates suffer continued imprisonment,” Drilon said, adding that PAO has been fixated on talking about the Dengvaxia issue instead.
He said he would file a resolution asking for a review of the performance of the Department of Justice, which has jurisdiction over PAO, in so far as the inmates are concerned.
“You are given fair warning. I will repeat, this is totally unacceptable,” Drilon said.
