A can—in fact, a barrel—of worms has been opened by the exposé on the plot to release murderer-rapist Antonio Sanchez, along with his six henchmen.
Just after I posed the question on how many heinous criminals may have been released by virtue of Republic Act 10592 whereby prisoners are awarded credits for “good conduct,” it surfaced that at least 1,914 convicts responsible for monstrous crimes have been freed. Among them were convicts for murder, rape, armed robbery, illegal drug trafficking, and kidnapping.
Thousands more hardened criminals stand to gain freedom under the law signed in 2013 by former President Noynoy Aquino, concocted by his cohorts Mar Roxas and Leila de Lima, and the dupes in the 15th Congress.
Now, the Senate is poised to investigate the whole issue involving the Bureau of Corrections as there appears to be grave abuse in processing and granting prisoners the benefits under RA 10592.
The identities of all those released from the New Bilibid Prison must be divulged publicly, particularly those who were supposed to be excluded from RA 10592!
However, BuCor officials said a court order is needed to compel them to divulge the names of those inmates who have been released and the thousands more awaiting for their freedom.
Indeed, the stench of this good conduct time allowance (GCTA) has reached all the way to the Senate halls.
Senators Ping Lacson, Dick Gordon and other lawmakers strongly sense irregularity in BuCor in the Sanchez case, except for former BuCor chief Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who said Sanchez “deserves a second chance.”
Dela Rosa’s successor at BuCor, former Bureau of Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon, has a lot of questions to answer in his return engagement at the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.
But just how can one convicted to nine counts of reclusion perpetua, who even figured in shabu smuggling in National Penitentiary, be included as beneficiaries of RA10592 “for good conduct?”
Actually, the exact question is, “Magkano?”
RA 10592 proves to be a law hatched in hell just as how retired judge Harriet Demetriou described the crime that killed then 19 year olds Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez in 1993 in Calauan, Laguna.
In 1995, Demetriou imposed seven life sentences for Sanchez et. al. which was eventually affirmed by the Supreme Court.
While already in Death Row, Sanchez and his fellow convict Luis Corcolon in the Sarmenta-Gomez case were again convicted to additional life sentences for the double-murder of father-and-son Nelson and Rickson Peñalosa, supporters of the former mayor’s political rivals.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has also disclosed that among those possible RA 10592 beneficiaries are the seven convicts in the 1997 abduction and rape-murders of sisters Maryjoy and Jaqueline Chiong in Cebu.
What is this travesty of justice that we have to put up with?