De Lima: IRR of GCTA law revised to cover up “most scandalous incident of corruption” in Guevarra-led DOJ, admin

(Eagle News)–The  “remedial move” of revising the implementing rules and regulations of the Good Conduct Time and Allowance law is but a mere “cover-up” of the “most scandalous incident of corruption” in the Menardo Guevarra-led Department of Justice and this administration.

This is according to Senator Leila de Lima, who issued the statement following the signing of the IRR revised by a joint DOJ and Department of the Interior and Local Government panel given the task following the release of convicts of heinous crimes under the law that reduces the sentence of inmates for good conduct.

The original IRR of the law were crafted in 2014, during the time of De Lima as justice secretary and of Mar Roxas as interior secretary.

“Nakakahiya, nakakasulasok, nakakadiri na ang lahat ng pangagagag*ng ginagawa ng gobyernong Duterte para lamang mailigtas ang tutang si Faeldon at ang payasong si Panelo,” De Lima said, referring to Nicanor Faeldon and Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo.

Faeldon was sacked as Bureau of Corrections director-general over the GCTA mess, while Panelo was accused of  having a hand in the near-release of former Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez.

Panelo was legal counsel of Sanchez, who was convicted of the murder  and rape of University of the Philippines Los Baños student Eileen Sarmenta and her friend Allan Gomez in the 1990s.

Panelo, however, has repeatedly denied the allegations, and Duterte has stood by him.

De Lima said the revised IRR “has raised the dead hopes and frustrated dreams of (persons deprived of liberty) who though convicted of heinous crimes have faithfully complied with the GCTA law and did their part as much as they can given the hard and brutish conditions of Philippine prisons.”

“And for what reasons? To cover up the corruption of Faeldon and their negligence in the enforcement of the GCTA law to the end that hardened criminals and multiple life sentence-servers did not easily go around the provisions of the law and buy GCTA credits with cash,” De Lima said.

She added Guevarra himself “does not seem to be so confident” with the revised IRR, noting that “he believes that if it is not the correct interpretation of the law, it is up to the Supreme Court to  settle any question raised against it.”

“With due respect to Secretary Guevarra, this is passing the buck to the Court. Any head of agency in charge of promulgating the IRR of the law should be convinced himself of the correctness of that IRR,” she said.

She, however, thanked Guevarra for supposedly saying she and Roxas were not to blame for the GCTA mess.

The Ombudsman, which is conducting a probe into the GCTA law, has asked De Lima and Roxas to explain the original IRR, which it noted did not explicitly exclude convicts of heinous crimes from availing of the benefits of the law.

The anti-graft body noted that the law itself explicitly bans that category of inmates from benefiting from the measure.

But in a letter to the Ombudsman, De Lima said the body should ask the DOJ and the DILG instead.