Police Major Gen. Guillermo Eleazar, director of the National Capital Region Police Office, has ordered all precinct and station commanders in Metro Manila to coordinate with barangay officials to identify convicts who were freed under the Good Conduct Time Allowance law but were ordered by President Duterte to surrender in 15 days.
Eleazar said this will facilitate the surrender of the convicts in compliance with the President’s order to bring them all back to the Bureau of Corrections amid allegations of anomalies in the implementation of Republic Act 10592.
“They should take advantage of the grace period given to them. President Duterte could have ordered for their immediate arrest but I believe he has good reasons why they were given 15 days to surrender instead,” said Eleazar.
If they won’t surrender, Eleazar said, his order will serve as the basis for police operations to arrest them after the 15-day period lapses.
Data from the Department of Justice said there are a little over 1,900 convicts who were released under the GCTA law.
Latest data of the Philippine National Police showed 25 convicts have turned themselves in to various police stations across the country.
Twenty-one of them were convicted due to murder and rape-related cases.
Eleazar also said they took the initiative of talking to the freed convicts or their relatives as some of them could still be unaware of the President’s order.
In the absence of the convicts themselves, Eleazar said that their family or relatives could play a key role in convincing them to surrender rather than playing hide-and-seek with the police.
“So this is an opportunity for them to do the right thing. If they believe that they went to the proper processing of their release, then their surrender would serve as a gesture of their sincerity that they really underwent the proper process,” said Eleazar.
Eleazar said they are banking on their partnership with Metro Manila barangay officials, whom he said, should be aware of what is going on in their communities.
The PNP leadership had earlier said that they would deploy tracker teams across the country against the convicts once the 15-day grace period ends. The PNP leadership had also received an initial list of the convicts. (Aaron Recuenco)
