CEBU CITY – Fifty-four Persons Deprived of Liberty at the Talisay City Jail in Cebu province were released for the New Year on Friday, Dec. 30.
They were reunited with their families outside the jail facility in Barangay Maghaway who showered them with hugs and kisses and shed tears of joy.
JO1 Mary Ann Lastimosa, information officer of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology-Talisay, said 48 of the newly released inmates were jailed for illegal drug charges. “They were released after availing of the plea bargaining agreement,” said Lastimosa.
Their detention was further cut short due to the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) system, said Lastimosa.
GCTA is a privilege granted to a PDL that entitles him or her to a reduction of prison term for every month of actual detention or service of sentence as a reward for good conduct and exemplary behavior.
“For these PDLs, it’s really a new year, a new life,” said Lastimosa.
One of the newly released inmates, “Mark,” was jailed for more than a year after he was arrested for a drug offense.
“Somehow, I am thankful that I was jailed because it was when I was in jail that I learned the value of your family. It’s not easy when you are away. You long for the people that you took for granted when you are still a free man,” Mark said in the Visayan dialect.
Mark’s father said he had to endure a lot just so he could see his son while serving his sentence.
“I have to walk for three kilometers just so I can visit my son. I endure that being a father, I love my son so much,” his father said.
A mother of another inmate said the release of her son was the best Christmas gift that she received. “I really prayed to the Lord to allow our son to be with us as a Christmas gift,” she said.
Aside from their personal belongings, the inmates also went home with baskets of goodies from the BJMP-Talisay.