Twenty-five persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) have been released from the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (IPPF) in Palawan for good conduct and participation in reformation programs.
“The 25 PDLs were able to have deductions on their sentences on the basis of good behavior and participation in reformation programs under the GCTA (Good Conduct Time Allowance), Republic Act No. 10592, which facilitated their early release,” the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) said in a statement.
“Since the beginning of the year 2022, IPPF had already released a total of 263 PDLs who were granted GCTA credits,” BuCor said.
Bucor records show that it had released a total of 4,461 PDLs from its seven prison facilities from Jan. 1 to July 22, 2022.
BuCor Director General Gerald Q. Bantag has instructed all local Management, Screening and Evaluation Committee (MSEC) “to intensify their efforts in scaling the deductible GCTA credits and immediately process the documents of PDLs qualified for release.”
As part of efforts to decongest prison facilities, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla is looking into the transfer of PDLs convicted of heinous crimes from the Maximum-Security Compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City to the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm (SPPF) in Occidental Mindoro
Remulla has also plans to set up two other prison facilities for heinous crime convicts in Leyte and Zamboanga City.
He said the plans are in line with the reconciled Senate Bill No. 1055 and House of Representatives Bill No. 10355 which lapsed into law last July 30.
The new law mandates the government to set up “secure, clean and adequately equipped and sanitary” penitentiary in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao for “high-level offenders” or those convicted of heinous crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment.
It also mandates the DOJ to determine the suitable location of the facilities which is preferred to be “within a military establishment or on an island.”
Among the heinous crimes in the Philippines are treason, parricide, murder, rape, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, robbery with violence, destructive arson, and plunder.
Also, Remulla said he has plans to convert the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment Rehabilitation Center (MDATRC) located in Fort Magsaysay in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija as a facility to house inmates of the NBP’s Medium and Minimum-Security Compounds.