(Eagle News)–Over 500 convicts released under the Good Conduct Time Allowance law have so far surrendered to authorities, the Department of Justice said.
According to Justice Undersecretary and spokesperson Markk Perete, the 505 are in Bureau of Corrections custody.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier ordered the convicts released under the law, which reduces the sentence of inmates for good conduct, to surrender or be treated as fugitives.
This was following reports GCTA was being sold to inmates by unscrupulous Bureau of Corrections personnel, and of the release of convicts of heinous crimes.
The Ombudsman is conducting a probe into the GCTA law, and has asked Senator Leila de Lima and Mar Roxas to explain why the implementing rules and regulations of the law does not explicitly ban convicts of heinous crimes from availing of the benefits of the law.
De Lima and Roxas, who were Justice secretary and Interior secretary then, respectively, crafted and issued the IRR of the law in 2014.
The Ombudsman had noted the law itself had explicitly banned convicts of heinous crimes from benefiting from the measure.
A DOJ and Department of the Interior and Local Government panel has reviewed the IRR and has submitted their recommendations to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año.
Tentative signing for the revised IRR is scheduled on Monday.
The panel has asked for more time to review the guidelines for accreditation of GCTA.
Guevarra has suspended the release of convicts under the law pending the completion of the work of the panel.