ARRESTING convicts who have been released on good conduct time allowance (GCTA) on the say-so of President Rodrigo Duterte violates the Constitution and the laws of the land, veteran lawyer Edgar Gica said.
Gica is president of the Cebu Lawyers for Unity and Brotherhood Inc. and had served as counsel to Josman Aznar in the kidnapping and serious illegal detention of sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong from 1998 to 1999.
Gica said the application of the GCTA to Aznar’s sentence of reclusion perpetua and death (later made reclusion perpetua following the repeal of the death penalty law in 2006) means Aznar and his other co-accused had served their punishment.
While insisting that the case against Aznar was baseless to begin with, Gica said, justice has been served “in the eyes of the law.”
Aznar has served at least 20 of the 30 years meted as his sentence. Reports said he has been released on GCTA since Aug. 16, 2019 but has not been seen in Cebu.
President Rodrigo Duterte, in a speech Sept. 4, demanded that all those freed by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) based on GCTA “surrender within 15 days” or he would consider putting up a P1 million bounty on their heads, “dead or alive.”
Rebuilding a life
“This young man should now be allowed to rebuild his life,” Gica said of Aznar. Hunting for him is like accusing him of the same crime again, the lawyer said.
“Why should the public be looking for him? Why should anybody be looking for them?” Gica posed, referencing Aznar and the two other Chiong convicts who had been released also on GCTA, Alberto Caño and Ariel Balansag.
“They have served their sentence. They have gone home and have a right to be left alone,” Gica said.
Herding the beneficiaries back to jail violates not only their civil rights under the Constitution, but also the laws of the land.
Likewise, it erodes public trust in the institutions of government, he said.
Up to SC
“The President cannot order the re-arrest of the beneficiaries. Only the Supreme Court can do that following a legal determination that their release was null and void,” he said.
“The President and all public officials have the legal and moral obligation to make the people understand,” he said, referring to processes that are inherent in a system of government-of-laws.
As tough as it was to defend Aznar then, securing him and the other GCTA beneficiaries will be even tougher, Gica said.
The lawyer said he cannot go to court to seek protection for Aznar from those who might want to claim a P1 million bounty “dead or alive” because all the President did was issue a statement.
“Is that public declaration of President Duterte something we can go to court with? That’s doubtful,” Gica said.
To go to court, he said, there must be some overt act. And that overt act is something that they specifically wish to avoid in the first place.
“But I also don’t think the police will also act on that verbal order,” he said. He hopes the presidential statement was only “spur of the moment.”
Unseen
Gica said he has not heard anything from Aznar, nor can he confirm his release.
He said he only read about it in the newspapers.
Gica said when lawyers accept clients, the relationship is for life, unless there is an overt act that terminates it. And since there has not been one between him and Aznar, Gica said he still considers Aznar his client.
“My advice to my client would be to connect with the others and try to secure from the President a categorical position that (the release of all GCTA beneficiaries) was the product of recklessness and negligence on the part of officials of the executive and that the government should suffer its consequence,” he said.
It is unjust to blame the beneficiaries for the outcome of the acts of executive officials like BuCor chief Nicanor Faeldon, Gica said.
Duterte fired Faeldon Wednesday after the latter approved the release of heinous crime convicts under the GCTA.
2 more surrenders
Meanwhile, two more convicts who had been released on GCTA presented themselves before the Mabolo police in Cebu City on Friday, Sept. 6.
Jesus Ranoco Negro Jr., who had served 30 years for murder, was the first GCTA beneficiary to turn himself in. He surrendered Sept. 4 to the Bogo police.
Danilo de la Victoria, 50, of Lahug, Cebu City had served 30 years for parricide at the San Ramon Penal Colony in Zamboanga City. He was released in December 2018.
Conrado Cortes, 74, of Gil Tudtud St. in Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City served 28 years at the National Bilibid Prison for robbery with homicide. He was released in June 2019.