JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Tuesday issued a department order for the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to look into another anomaly inside the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) which allows prisoners pretending to be sick to get out of jail by securing a hospital pass from prison officials in exchange of money.
“In the interest of service and pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act No. 10867 or the National Bureau of Investigation Eeorganization and Modernization Act, which authorizes the Secretary of Justice to direct the National Bureau of Investigation to undertake investigation of ny crime when public interest so requires , the NBI…is hereby directed and granted authority to conduct an investigation and case build-up on the alleged illegal practice of transferring persons deprived of liberty (PDL) to the New Bilibid Prison Hospital for monetary consideration and, if evidence warrants, to file appropriate charges against persons found responsible therefor,” the order read.
Guevarra directed NBI Director Dante Gierran to submit reports on the progress of the investigation and case build-up to his office.
The NBI is the investigating arm of the justice department.
Reports showed that inmates from the NBP has managed to secure temporary respite from jail mess by securing hospital pass by pretending to be sick in connivance with prison officials.
The illegal practice was unearthed in the midst of the investigation into the anomalous implementation and computation of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) for PDLs that resulted to the release of almost 2,000 PDLs convicted of heinous crimes.
This developed as Guevarra said the justice department would welcome anyone who would challenge the interpretation of Republic Act 10592 o the expanded GCTA which was recently ordered by the Supreme Court to be applied retroactively.
“The government will welcome any challenged by an interested party in court of law, so that a definitive and final interpretation of R.A. 10592 could be promulgated for everyone’s guidance,” the DOJ chief said.
Guevarra assured that the government is not taking steps to address the confusion brought about by the SC ruling by reviewing and coming up with a new implementing rules and regulation (IRR) of R.A. 10592.
The implementation of the expanded GCTA has been put on hold pending the review of its IRR.
The committee composed of the DOJ and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) is expected to come out with the new IRR on September 12.