Panel to seek for deadline extension to complete review of guidelines for GCTA accreditation
(Eagle News)–The joint Department of Justice and Department of the Interior and Local Government panel tasked to review the implementing rules and regulations of RA 10592 or the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law has completed its draft IRR, but will ask for extension to review the guidelines on GCTA accreditation.
This is according to Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete, who said the draft has been submitted to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año for their review.
He said the tentative schedule for the ceremonial signing of the revised IRR by Guevarra and Año is on Monday, Sept. 16, 2 p.m.
Perete said the panel will ask Año and Guevarra, however, “for an extension of their mandate to review and recommend revisions to the Uniform Manual and Guidelines for the implementation of RA No. 10592.”
Guevarra and Año had given the panel 15 days to complete its work.
Guevarra suspended the release of convicts under the GCTA law, which reduces the sentence of an inmate for good conduct, pending the completion of the panel’s review.
The panel was created following the release of convicts of heinous crimes under the GCTA law, which the Palace has blamed on the IRR crafted in 2014, during the time of then-Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and then-Interior Secretary Mar Roxas.
The Ombudsman, which is probing the GCTA law, has asked De Lima and Roxas to explain why the IRR do not explicitly exclude convicts of heinous crimes from availing of the benefits of the law.
The Ombudsman noted the law itself prevents this category of inmates from benefiting from the law.