NO wonder lawyers resort to their security blanket, “Dura lex, sed lex,” whenever they come across a law that is hard (dura) to carry out but because it is (sed) the law, it’s the law.
RA 10529 is such a law, if our lawmaking senators and the head of the Department of Justice are to be believed. Is that mindnumbing good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law hard to understand, hard to execute, or hard to clarify for nonlawyers due to its vagueness, ambiguities, loopholes, and other infirmities? For one thing, the title of the law is such a blah that no one bothered to put in punctuation marks, at least to ask why there aren’t any.
Passed in 2015, RA 10529 is “three pages long” and features “no declaration of policy,” in the words of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the new superstar on the lawyerly horizon who speaks clearly, in complete sentences and looks cool (or hot) enough to be the dean of a law school, postgrad level and who, just as important, knows whereof he speaks and whom he’s speaking to. The little I know about him, he’s not, ehem, from San Beda.
In addition, Secretary Guevarra informed the senators and his TV audience at Monday’s hearing, “It’s a law without a ‘whereas’ clause that states policy, intent, and purpose’.” That’s clear enough, isn’t it, clear as a bell? How did such a piece of legislation pass Congress’ verbose scrutiny?
Senator Ralph Recto asked, “What section authorizes BuCor to release prisoners?” The Secretary replied, clear as a bell, “Nothing in the law.” It’s the Bureau of Corrections law that authorizes its director general, in this case Nicanor Faeldon, to release prisoners. In aid of legislation, Mr. Guevarra suggested adding “a clause to exclude such and such” – for example, those guilty of heinous crimes.
On top of a law that leaves much to be desired, Senator Imee Marcos pointed out there are three manuals to follow, those of BJMP, BuCor, and a prison manual.
Talking like one of us, Senator Bong Go wondered aloud what to do about the thousands of convicts already freed. Of several options he himself listed, the one that produced the loudest resonance was, “Shoot to kill?”
