PACC to suspend probe into GCTA mess following OP directive

(Eagle News)–The Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission will suspend its probe into the Good Conduct Time Allowance mess.

The PACC said this was after the Office the President itself ordered the suspension, with a probe into the controversy already being undertaken by the Ombudsman and the Senate.

The PACC said  the investigation being conducted by the Department of Justice and the National Bureau of Investigation is also suspended.

The Ombudsman has already suspended over 27 Bureau of Corrections officials over the controversy and has asked Senator Leila de Lima and Mar Roxas, who were the justice secretary and interior secretary when the GCTA law’s implementing rules and regulations were crafted, to explain the IRR.

The Ombudsman noted that the IRR did not explicitly exclude convicts of heinous crimes from availing of the benefits of the law while the law itself does.

De Lima has asked the Ombudsman to instead direct its query to the Department of Justice and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Roxas, for his part, said the IRR operate within the framework of the law.

The Senate for its part has so far recommended the establishment of a separate penal facility for convicts of heinous crimes.