(Eagle News)–Ombudsman Samuel Martires has asked former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas to explain their Implementing Rules and Regulations of the Good Conduct Time Allowance law.
Martires, who is conducting a probe into the law that was used by the Bureau of Corrections as a basis to release some convicts of heinous crimes, particularly wants to know why the IRR Roxas and De Lima crafted in 2014 did not contain the same categories of inmates disqualified from coverage of the GCTA law or Republic Act 10592 that were specified in the law itself.
Section 1 of RA 10592, Martires noted, bans recidivists, escapees, habitual delinquents and those charged with heinous crimes from availing of the law’s provision that allows the reduction of an inmate’s period of preventive imprisonment from his term of imprisonment and from benefiting from the law itself.
Rule IV Section III of the IRR, however, Martires noted, only disqualifies recidivists, an accused who has been convicted previously twice or more than of any crime, and an accused who failed to voluntarily surrender at the time he was summoned to execute his sentence from coverage of the law’s provision on preventive imprisonment.
“In this regard, this office requests the submission, within three days from receipt hereof, of a written clarification/explanation …,” Martires said.
“We are grateful in advance for your usual prompt response on the matter,” Martires added.
Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the Ombudsman to probe the GCTA law, following the release of convicts in the rape-slay of the Chiong sisters, and the near-release of former Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez, who was convicted of the rape and murder of Eileen Sarmenta and the murder of Allan Gomez in the 1990s.
