The list of heinous crime convicts prematurely set free for good behavior may be validated and finalized by next week so authorities can re-arrest them with “pinpoint accuracy,” a Palace official said yesterday.
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles explained that the government wanted to make sure that only convicts “improperly” released under the Good Conduct Time Allowance law would be sent back to jail.
Nograles issued statement after the Department of Justice asked the Philippine National Police to suspend the arrest of the convicts who failed to surrender following errors reportedly found in the list. Of the 1,914 names in the government list, more than 1,000 convicts have reportedly surrendered to authorities after President Duterte gave them 15 days or until Sept. 19 to turn themselves in or risk being arrested without warrants.
“They are finalizing the list of persons who are disqualified to avail of the GCTA law, meaning to say more importantly the heinous crime convicts. They are finalizing the list so the PNP can effect the warrantless arrest with pinpoint accuracy,” Nograles said. “We will leave it just to the DoJ how fast they can screen and finalize the list. Hopefully by next week, it will be clear who must be arrested by the PNP,” he added.
He said although legally speaking, the policemen could implement the warrantless arrest, they want to be certain that only convicts disqualified from GCTA will be returned to prison. “In effect, you can already do the warrantless arrest right now but the PNP just have to be very sure, or to have pinpoint accuracy on who will be arrested. So it’s just a matter of coordinating with DoJ, finalizing the list,” he said.
Once the list of wanted convicts is finalized, Nograles said the government can prepare the guidelines for the bounty system for information leading to their capture. (Genalyn Kabiling)