The Department of Justice has approved the release of 34 more persons deprived of liberty who heeded the order of President Duterte to surrender.
“The (DoJ) Oversight Committee has approved the release of another 34 PDL-surrenderers, per recommendation by the Joint Task Force,” said DoJ deputy spokesman and Assistant Secretary Neal Bainto.
“This batch of 34 individuals, once released by BuCor (Bureau of Corrections), should bring the total released PDL-surrenderers to 158,” he noted.
There are 2,221 freed PDLs who heeded the call of Duterte to surrender.
However, the number exceeded the list of the BuCor containing 1,914 PDLs who were released because of Good Conduct Time Allowance.
A joint task force of the DoJ and BuCor is currently sifting through the records of the PDLs who surrendered to determine who among them should have been freed.
Duterte gave the order for those who were released because of GCTA to surrender due to concerns that unqualified PDLs were among them, including those convicted of heinous crimes. (Jeffrey Damicog)