Because officials ignored

law's exclusion provision

IFONGRESS approved on May 29,2073, Republic Act 10592, amending the Re-
tjvised Penal Act, providing for
deductions for good conduct from the prison terms
of convicted persons, specifying in detail the number of days to be deducted from their
sentences,
Section 1 of the law, which has come to be known as the Good Conduct Time Allow-
ance (GCTA) Law, includes the provision: "Provided, finally, that recidivists, habitual
delinquents, escapees, and persons charged with heinous crimes are excluded from the
coverage of this Ad."
It is this provision which seems to have been grossly violated in the cases of so many
prisoners released by the Bureau of Prisons (Bucor) over the years, discovered only
when news came out on the impending release of former Calauan. Laguna, l4ayor An-
tonio Sanchez, as a beneficiary of the law, despite the fact that he had been sentenced
to seven life terms on seven counts of rape and homicide and another-two life terms for
murder in another case.
The issue has since expanded in many directions. Diredor General Nicanor Faeldon
has been relieved while the Bucor chief before him, Ronald dela Rosa, newly elected
senator, is among the officials under investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman.
Ombudsman Samuelsanchez has gone to the- extdnfof asking former Interior Secretary
Mar Roxas and former Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to explain why the Implementing
Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the law did not stress the exclusion of heinous crima
convicts as beneficiaries of the Good Conduct Time Allowance Act.
l4any prisonqrs who were able to benefit from the GCIA have voluntarily returned
to prison. They reportedly include some 2,000 convicted of heinous crimes. But there
may be legitimate cases of prisoners entitled to benefit from the GCTA.
Congress has stepped into the case, with thd Senate Blue Ribbon Committee led by
Sen. Richard Gordon focusing on seeming irregularities in the nJnning of the Bureau oi
Corrections, including drug trafficking and gambling within the premises. In the House,
Rep. Romeo Jalosjos Jr., sponsor of the Ombudsman,s budget in the deliberations on the
Natlonal Budget for 2020,said all present and past officials of the prison bureau are now
under investigation.
The Bucor case has now spread far and wide, exposing corruption where it had not
been expected and connections to offcials who had not been suspected of involve-
ment in such a s wide-ranginil irregularity. And it all began because a core of officials
deliberately chose to ignore a provision of an otherwise good law, the Good Conduct Time
Attowance Law (GCIA), RA 10592. p!3i-ial