Metro Manila police chief Police Major Gen. Guillermo Eleazar yesterday advised all defiant convicts who were freed due to the questionable implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance law to refrain from fighting it out with cops as operations to account them started anew.
“President Duterte gave them 15 days to surrender purposely to make their return as peaceful and orderly as possible. We also do not want any untoward incident to happen,” said Eleazar. “So we advise them not to do something that would jeopardize their safety once our personnel are able to track their locations. But still, the best option is for them to surrender,” he added.
The National Capital Region Police Office has so far accounted 81 of the GCTA-freed convicts. Twenty-nine of them have last known addresses in Metro Manila while the rest are living outside the metropolis and opted to yield to police stations in Metro Manila.
Three hours after the President’s deadline lapsed at midnight on Thursday, NCRPO operatives arrested three convicts and arrested another before the Department of Justice asked for the suspension of police operations Friday morning.
The DoJ asked for the halt in police operations to double check the Bureau of Corrections list since the number of those who surrendered has exceeded the 1,914 in the list.
But as soon as a Palace official said that police could resume their operations, Eleazar said that they were able to arrest another one in Metro Manila at around 3 p.m. Friday.
“The series of arrests we conducted is a proof that we are serious in running after them. We will not stop until they are all accounted because that is the order coming from the President,” said Eleazar.
Most of those who were arrested claimed that they were not aware of the President’s order and they were freed because they have served their sentences.
There are 202 GCTA-freed convicts listed as residents of Metro Manila based on the data from the BuCor.
As of yesterday morning, Eleazar said that they have yet to account 164 GCTA-freed convicts whose last known addresses are in Metro Manila.
“Some of them are possibly still in Metro Manila while some may have already started hiding in the provinces especially when they saw that we are really conducting operations to arrest them,” said Eleazar. “So I have already instructed my tracker teams to intensify intelligence build-up and the coordination with barangay officials,” he added. (Aaron Recuenco)
