TWO convicts who were released based on good conduct on Thursday, September 5, heeded President Rodrigo Duterte's call to surrender in less than 24 hours.
Nicanor Naz and Jesus Ranoco Negro Jr. surrendered to the police Thursday, less than 24 hours after the President ordered all convicts of heinous crimes who were released based on good conduct time allowance (GCTA) to surrender within 15 days.
Naz was meted life imprisonment for illegal drugs charges in 1993. He was released from the Davao Penal Colony on July 11, 2019 and surrendered to the Pasay City police station Thursday afternoon.
Negro, 50, was convicted of eight counts of murder and frustrated murder in 1990. He was serving a prison term of 30 years, but was released early on August 9, 2019.
Negro, a resident of Barangay Dakit in Bogo City, surrendered to the Bogo City Police Station Thursday morning.
Duterte on Wednesday night ordered all convicts of heinous crimes who were released for good behavior to surrender within 15 days or risk having a P1-million bounty on their head.
The President issued the order at the same time that he also demanded the resignation of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon following the outrage over the early release of heinous crime convicts.
A total of 1,914 heinous crime convicts have been released based on GCTA since 2014. Over 200 of this number were processed after the Supreme Court ruled on the retroactive effectivity of the GCTA law in June 2019.
The Philippine National Police (PNP) is activating tracker teams led by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to locate the convicts. PNP Chief Oscar Albayalde earlier said their manhunt targets about 1,700 convicts who were released before the SC ruling was issued.
The GCTA is granted under Republic Act 10592 to shorten the prison term of qualified persons deprived of liberty (PDL).
The law, however, does not cover those convicted of heinous crimes. But the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) allow heinous crime convicts to avail of this benefit. (SunStar Philippines)