The Bureau of Corrections has released at least 124 inmates who had surrendered but were not covered by President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to return to prison as of Oct. 7, Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said Tuesday.
Perete said some of the people deprived of liberty who surrendered before the ultimatum were released since they were freed not on account of the Good Conduct Time Allowances Law.
“The ones that they released, 124 of them, and another 37 have been verified yesterday [Monday] for release,” Perete told ABS-CBN’s news channel.
He said the PDLs knew they did not need to surrender to authorities, but they still did so to be assured they would not be arrested.
Perete said some of the surrenderers were requesting documents like certification as proof of their entitlement to liberty.
For this purpose, Perete said, they had been issuing those certificates to the freed prisoners. “So these people can now sleep soundly at night. That’s one guarantee, the certification,” he said.
Duterte earlier ordered 1,914 convicts of heinous crimes to surrender due to concerns that some of them were prematurely released because of the misapplication of the GCTA Law.
The number of surrenderers exceeded the expected figure, reaching more than 2,000, because some who were released on pardon or parole, or were acquitted or not even convicted of heinous crimes might have returned to custody, according to officials.
The Department of Justice and BuCor are also cleaning up the list.
“We cannot give specific numbers because the numbers keep on moving. Even the 1,914-list, that’s not an accurate number,” an official said.