THE Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to inform the Supreme Court on the need to temporarily suspend the implementation of its decision mandating retroactive application of the expanded Good Conduct Time Allowances (GCTAs) under Republic Act 10592, the law meant to decongest prisons and seen to release thousands of prisoners.
“We will surely inform the Supreme Court of the need to temporarily suspend the processing of GCTAs until the BuCor [Bureau of Corrections] guidelines have been carefully reviews by a DOJ task force to be constituted for the purpose,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra told reporters.
Guevarra clarified that the DOJ will merely inform the high court of the complications, and not formally ask the SC for the suspension of the implementation of its order issued last June, which the Court said is “immediatelyexecutory.”
“We will just inform the SC. Immediately executory simply means final, it does not preclude a momentary suspension so that guidelines could be reviewed before moving forward. I’m sure the SC would understand,” Guevarra said.
The law, though acknowledged in many quarters as well-intentioned, has become the focus of attention owing to reports that one of those to be immediately benefited is former Calauan, Laguna, Mayor Antonio Sanchez. The latter has been jailed the past 26 years for seven life terms imposed upon his conviction of the rape-murder of UPLB coed Eileen Sarmenta and the torture-murder of her boyfriend Allan Gomez.
On June 25, 2019, the Court issued a decision ordering the immediate enforcement of its ruling that the GCTAs under the 2013 Republic Act 10592 should be implemented retroactively.
RA 10592 was enacted on May 2013 and signed into law by former President Benigno Aquino III.
RA 10592 amended several provisions in the Revised Penal Code (RPC) and authorized the credit of preventive imprisonment and revision of good conduct time allowance of persons deprived of liberty.
The law expanded the application of GCTA for prisoners even during preventive suspension, increased the number of days for GCTA, allowed additional deduction of 15 days each month of for time allowance for study, teaching or mentoring service (TASTM), and expanded the special time allowance for loyalty (STAL) even during preventive suspension.
The Court held that the ruling would help decongest jails by substantially reducing their prison term.
The ruling, penned by Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta and unanimously approved by his peers, directed the Director General of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the Chief of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology “to recompute with reasonable dispatch the time allowances due to petitioners and all those who are similarly situated and, thereafter, to cause their immediate release from imprisonment in case of full service of sentence, unless they are being confined thereat for any other lawful cause.”
“This decision is immediately executory,” the decision stated.
Guevarra assured the public the DOJ will come out with a deadline to complete the review upon consultation with the BuCor, Board of Pardons and Parole and other relevant agencies “to avoid any undue prejudice to the rights of persons deprived of liberty who have validly earned GCTAs.”
“We expect the processing to pick up greater speed once the guidelines have been reviewed and firmed up,” Guevarra explained.
Battle of DOJ chiefs
Meanwhile, Guevarra also denied the claim of Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon that the department has issued conflicting interpretations on the expanded GCTA for Sanchez’s benefit.
He pointed out that “although the BuCor/DOJ made a general statement that thousands of PDLs, including detained former Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez, may benefit from said law, the DOJ came out with only one definitive statement regarding the non-entitlement to GCTAs of heinous crime convicts under the 2013 law.”
“The DOJ will be glad to have this issue resolved with clarity and finality either by a congressional amendment of its own act, or by an interpretation rendered by the Supreme Court in a proper case brought before it,” Guevarra said, apparently reacting to Drilon, himself a former Justice chief.
The SC has clarified that it did not order the release of Sanchez or any other prisoner in its June ruling, but simply ruled on the legality of the implementing rules and regulations of RA 10592 which provided for the prospective application of the said law.
He pointed out that “in deciding the cases, the Court applied the fundamental doctrine in criminal law that penal laws when favorable and advantageous to the accused, should be applied retroactively.”
“Thus, the SC struck down the IRR and ruled that RA 10592 be applied retroactively, because it had the effect of lowering or reducing the sentences of qualified prisoners, hence, advantageous to them,” he added.
SC Public Information Office chief Brian Keith Hosaka said the implementation of RA 10592 is not within the jurisdiction of the SC but of the executive branch of the government.
“Again, the judiciary merely interpreted the law and ruled that it can be applied retroactively,” Hosaka said.