(Eagle News)–Senator Leila de Lima on Wednesday, Sept. 4, urged her fellow lawmakers not to repeal Republic Act No. 10592 even with the release of convicts of heinous crimes, including those convicted for the rape-slay of the Chiong sisters, under its retroactive application.
“Let not the legitimacy and the well-settled wisdom of the law be clouded or demolished by its misapplication, abuses in enforcement or wrongdoings on the part of the designated implementors of the law,” De Lima, who was justice secretary when the law’s implementing rules and regulations were crafted, said.
She noted that to “junk this law is to retrogress from hard-won triumphs in the legal universe.”
“Dredge, foremost, into our collective consciousness, the merits of the (Good Conduct Time Allowance) Law (both the original and amendatory provisions) as rooted in the restorative philosophy or principles that underlie our modern criminal justice and correctional systems,” she said.
De Lima issued the statement after Senate President Tito Sotto and Senators Richard Gordon and Ping Lacson filed a bill seeking to repeal the law which increases the GCTA granted to inmates.
This was following reports even some convicts of heinous crimes had been released under the law.
Although the three senators lauded the purpose of the law which is to decongest overpopulated prisons, they said “it may give more logical reason to abandon such purpose if the magnitudes of its aftermath are prejudicial for many of the victims and their relatives who are seeking justice.”
