The Justice department said Thursday it expects to complete in two weeks its review of the Uniform Manual governing the computation of good conduct time allowance for convicts.
Justice Undersecretary Deo Marco expressed hope they would finish the review and revision of the Uniform Manual on Time Allowances and Service of Sentence for the people deprived of liberty, prisoners and those convicted of crimes, by the middle of November.
The oversight committee has been given 60 days to come up with a revised version of the Uniform Manual to make sure only qualified people deprived of liberty will benefit from the GCTA.
“We are now around 50-percent complete. Our deadline to finish the Uniform Manual is in two-weeks’ time, Marco said.
He said the oversight panel was making sure the contents of the Uniform Manual would conform to the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act 10592, or the Expanded GCTA Law, and the Supreme Court decision ordering the retroactive application of the law.
Marco said the Uniform Manual was a more difficult undertaking than the crafting of the GCTA’s Revised IRR because they had to make a detailed study and make revisions on the computation of the PDLs GCTA.
“There are no hitches [in the review]. It should be in accordance with the [Revised] IRR,” Marco said.
“This [Uniform Manual] is a more difficult undertaking because we have to be more specific in the details [on the GCTA], unlike in the IRR where we can be general [with the details, and that is why our deliberations are taking that long.”
In September, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra and Interior Secretary Eduardo Año gave the oversight committee 60 days to complete the review of the Uniform Manual.
The implementation of the computation for the GCTA raised questions and created a controversy on Aug. 22 after it was reported that former Calauan, Laguna, Mayor Antonio Sanchez, who was convicted for the rape and murder of University of the Philippines-Los Baños students Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez, was about to be released for good conduct. In 1995, he was sentenced to serve seven life terms or a maximum period of 40 years for his crime.
The news of Sanchez’s impending release sparked public outrage, with families of the victims and the general public questioning the approval of his release.
He was caught with an air-conditioning unit and a flat screen inside his cell in 2015 and a million pesos worth of illegal drugs inside a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 2010 in prison.
The GCTA’s Revised IRR specifically excludes from the list of GCTA beneficiaries PDLs who were recidivists, habitual delinquents, escapists and those who were charged with heinous crimes.