MANILA — The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is establishing a technical working group (TWG) to create guidelines for including convicts of heinous crimes under the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law, following a recent Supreme Court decision.
According to the Philippines News Agency, BuCor Director General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. announced that the TWG would draft the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) and seek guidance from the Department of Justice (DOJ). The Supreme Court’s ruling on April 3 deemed the DOJ’s 2019 IRR, which excluded heinous crime convicts from GCTA benefits, as an overreach of its legislative powers. “We need to carefully determine the computation of time allowances for the persons deprived of liberty, whether it should start from their initial detention or from when they were transferred to BuCor facilities,” Catapang explained.
The directive comes after past controversies where GCTA recalculations were allegedly manipulated for financial gain, leading to the unauthorized release of some convicts. “We have to be very careful to avoid a repeat of past mistakes,” Catapang emphasized.
The GCTA law, revised under Republic Act 10592, allows for sentence reductions due to good behavior. The law states that all convicts, regardless of the nature of their crime, are eligible for such reductions while incarcerated in any penal institution. Following the Supreme Court’s decision, which was reaffirmed on August 20, BuCor reported that approximately 27,311 convicts of heinous crimes nationwide might benefit, with conditions based on their conduct and sentence served.
Among these, 9,168 could be eligible for release based on their date of initial detention, and 5,039 if assessed from their reception into BuCor facilities. Priority for release will be given to those who are terminally ill, over 70 years of age, or in poor health.