Police are set to deploy 121 tracker teams nationwide Thursday to hunt down heinous crime convicts released under the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law.
READ: Hunt for 1,914 convicts on
Lino Santos
Brig. Gen. Bernabe Balba, deputy director of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group said each tracker team, composed of five personnel, will be deployed after the 15-day grace period set by President Rodrigo Duterte for their surrender lapses.
“We have already organized teams and even before the deadline, we are helping to locate these convicts and there were those who surrendered. In fact, we have already listed 47 surrenderers in the CIDG,” he said in Filipino in a TV interview.
Philippine National Police spokesman Brig. Gen Bernard Banac said as of 6 a.m. Sunday, 431 convicts released under the GCTA law have surrendered to the different police stations nationwide. Of the total, 252 have already been turned over to the BuCor.
He said 138 were cases of murder, 130 cases of rape, 42 cases of robbery with homicide, 28 cases of homicide, 14 cases of rape with homicide, nine cases of robbery with rape, 18 cases of dangerous drugs, and eight cases of parricide.
Justice Undersecretary Deo Marco, however, admitted that two of the convicted rapist-murderers of the Chiong sisters of Cebu who were erroneously released on good conduct have not surrendered, despite feelers that were sent out last week.
Four of the seven men convicted in the rape and killing of sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong reportedly benefitted from Republic Act 10592 or the GCTA law.
Two of the released convicts, Ariel Balansag and Albert Caño, have already complied with President Durterte’s order and turned themselves in.
The Chiong sisters were raped and killed in July 16, 1997 in Cebu. In May 1999, a regional trial court in Cebu sentenced the seven accused, namely Balansag, Caño, Aznar, Uy, Francisco Juan Larrañaga, James Andrew Uy, and Rowen Adlawan, to death by lethal injection, which was later changed to life imprisonment after the death penalty was abolished.
Larrañaga, a Spanish citizen and great-grandson of former President Sergio Osmeña Sr., has been serving his sentence in Spain.
Meanwhile, Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said the Bureau of Immigration is still verifying the whereabouts of 28 released convicts. With PNA
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