President Duterte has legal basis to order the re-arrest of inmates who were released due to Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA), Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Thursday.
“Basis for re-arrest is not a law (statute) but jurisprudence, which forms part of the law of the land,” Guevarra told reporters.
Recently, Duterte ordered all 1,700 inmates who were released due to the GCTAs to surrender to authorities or risk re-arrest and possible death.
Duterte is also mulling a P1-million reward for the capture of every inmate, dead or alive, if they refuse to surrender within 15 days.
Guevarra cited as basis for the re-arrest the Supreme Court (SC) rulings in the People vs. Tan case in 1967 and the City Warden of Manila City Jail vs. Raymond Estrella, et al in 2001.
The 1967 case was already cited by Sen. Franklin Drilon during the Senate hearing concerning the GCTA.
In the case, the SC ordered the re-arrest of Fidel Tan as it ruled that the jail warden has no authority in crediting a prisoner a GCTA without approval from the director of prisons, now the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director general, and that there was an error in the computation in the GCTA of the inmate who still had to serve 11 months and five days.
“The prisoner’s re-arrest would not place him twice in jeopardy because his re-incarceration is merely a continuation of the penalty that he had not completely served due to the erroneous act of the warden; it is not a new or subsequent conviction. Neither would his re-arrest deprive him of liberty and without due process of law, because he was not yet entitled to liberty at the time he was released,” read the SC ruling.
While in the 2001 case, the SC issued a ruling over the petition for habeas corpus filed by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on behalf of 34 inmates whom it said earned enough GCTAs that would allow for their release.
Of the 34, 22 were released and a trial court ordered the release of eight more based on the certification of good behavior issued by the warden.
However, the SC overturned the ruling of the lower court and ordered the re-arrest of the inmates since their release required the BuCor chief’s certification.
In the 2001, the SC also cited the People vs. Tan case and ruled that their re-incarceration is merely a continuation of the penalties that they had not completely served due to the invalid crediting of good conduct time allowances in their favor.” (Jeffrey Damicog)
