President Duterte has pardoned more convicted persons, including foreigners, compared to the previous administration, said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Wednesday.

“So many of our fellow Filipinos have received the benefit of the President’s executive clemency in the form of pardons, commutation of sentences, etc. As a matter of fact, konti lang ang foreigners (There are only a few foreigners),” Guevarra said during an interview over ANC.

The secretary pointed this out after the President on Monday announced giving absolute pardon to United States Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton who got convicted in 2015 for homicide in the 2014 killing of transgender Jennifer Laude.

“Since the time that the President assumed his position as president, there was something like 139 pardons already,” Guevarra said

“And this is a lot more than the total number of pardons given during the previous administration,” said.

Among the 139 convicted persons who were pardoned, Guevarra said “135 were given to Filipinos and only four were given to foreigners.”

“Doon sa four na binigay sa foreigners, yung dalawa doon by exchange agreement pa, prisoner swap with the United Arab Emirates (Among the four foreigners granted pardon, two were done through a prisoner swap agreement with the United Arab Emirates),” he said.

Prior to the granting of pardon, the Laude family opposed the order of the Olongapo City court which granted the motion of Pemberton for early release after considering his good conduct time allowance (GCTA).

Guevarra assured that Filipinos convicted of crimes have also benefited from the GCTA Law.

“Since the time that the IRR was revised September last year up to September of this year, a total of something like 90 or 91 PDLs (persons deprived of liberty) were processed in accordance with the revised IRR of the GCTA Law,” he said citing figures from the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

Guevarra ordered the suspension of the GCTA processing in August last year following controversies that unqualified persons like convicted former Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez and others convicted of heinous crimes were benefiting from the GCTA Law.

GCTA processing resumed after the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) released a revised IRR of the GCTA Law in September last year.

Republic Act 10592, also known as the GCTA Law, was passed in 2013 and revised provisions of the Revised Penal Code (RPC) which allowed the earlier release of convicts due to the increase of GCTAs granted to them.