BEATING THE DEADLINE: 30% of GCTA-freed convicts yield in WV

By: Jennifer P. Rendon and Glazyl Y. Masculino

ALMOST 30 percent of the heinous crimes convicts in Western Visayas who were released under the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law have voluntarily surrendered in different police stations all over the region.

As of Sept. 18, Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) accounted 44 convicts who surrendered since September 5.

Fourteen surrendered to the Iloilo Police Provincial Office (IPPO); 10 to  Aklan PPO; 7 to Negros Occidental PPO; 6 to Capiz PPO; 3 each to Antique PPO and Iloilo City PO; and 1 in Bacolod City.

PRO-6 records showed 149 convicts were freed under the GCTA Law since January 2013.

Most of them are in Negros Occidental with 57; Iloilo province with 29; Bacolod City with 21; Aklan – 15; Capiz – 13; and Iloilo City and Antique with 7 each.

Police Brigadier General Rene Pamuspusan, Western Visayas police chief, said the remaining convicts have until today, September 19, to surrender.

“After that, they will be considered fugitives,” he said.

There were convicts who claimed, though, that they were released from incarceration because they were paroled.

But since they surrendered, “we accepted them. We processed him and he will also be turned over to the Bureau of Corrections,” said Police Colonel Roland Vilela, Iloilo police chief.

The surrenderer is from Iloilo City and yielded to Pavia Police Station.

His name was not also listed on the 149 GCTA-freed convicts.

“We leave it to BuCor to determine whether he’s included or not,” Vilela said.

In Bacolod City, only one out of the 23 GCTA Law beneficiaries surrendered to the police yesterday.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Ariel Pico, public information officer of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), said that a 38-year-old man from Barangay Isio, Cauayan, Negros Occidental appeared before Police Station 2 here around 12:30 p.m.

He is currently residing at Barangay 1 here which is in the area of Police Station 2.

He was convicted of six counts of rape before the Regional Trial Court Branch 6 in Kabankalan City last February 22, 2006 and was released from jail last May 15, 2018.

The ex-convict is temporarily in the custody of Police Station 2, pending his transfer to the Negros Occidental District Jail (NODJ) in Bago City.

He is scheduled to be transferred to the Bureau of Corrections today, Sept 19.

Pico said this is the first GCTA convict here who surrendered to authorities.

Meanwhile, Pamuspusan said the surrenderers from Panay Island, except Aklan province, would be transported to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) – District Jail in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo.

“We don’t have custodial vans or buses to transport them. We also don’t want to endanger their security,” Pamuspusan said.

The BJMP would take charge in transporting the surrenderers to the BuCor facility.

Meanwhile, the Aklan PPO deemed that it would be practical to transport the convicts to Sablayan Penal Colony in Occidental Mindoro, which is near them.

Surrenderers from Negros Occidental and Bacolod City would be turned over to BJMP in Bago City.

By September 20, Pamuspusan said unaccounted convicts would be subjected to police manhunt operations.

He said that tracker teams from different police stations and offices are ready to hunt down convicts who refused to voluntarily submit themselves.

Echoing what PNP chief General Oscar Albayalde said, Pamuspusan said they would apply necessary force, explaining President Rodrigo Duterte’s shoot-to-kill order.

The necessary force will be for those who would put up a fight with authorities.

It was not clear, though, how the guidelines of the P1-M reward for capture of GCTA-freed convicts would be released.

But Pamuspusan assured they are not part of it.

“You are not rewarded for a job expected of you,” he said.