Some 82 good conduct time allowance (GCTA) returnees will soon be released from the Iwahig Corrections Facility, a penal official said.
The figure is from a total of 183 GCTA returnees who are currently under the ICF custody at Building 4.
Corrections technical officer II Levi Evangelista said early this week that the penal management is just waiting for their clearances to be officially sent to them from the Bureau of Corrections-Inmates’ Documents and Processing Division (BuCor-IDPD).
“From BuCor IDPD records of returnees who were already processed ng NBP (National Bilibid Prison) IDPD para sa Iwahig batch one returnee, 82 ‘yong list of names na-receive natin,” he said.
He said that the clearances will be signed by BuCor director-general Gerald Bantag before the proper release.
Evangelista said that the initial number of earlier release is only 10 under parole but the BuCor had given them 82 names which include GCTA grantees.
“After the assessment and evaluation, hindi naman talaga sila, walang kinalaman sa pagri-release ng GCTA, mari-release sila ng mas maaga. Once cleared by the DOJ (Department of Justice) oversight committee ‘yong certificate na pinadala, certificate of discharge follows na i-issue naman ni director general Bantag,” he said.
Evangelista said that the oversight committee had already conducted evaluation and recomputation of the GCTA returnees. He said that the committee did not see any legal impediment for the returnees to be held by ICF longer.
He said they are also waiting for the second batch list.
“Nakakatuwa rin kasi hindi natin inasahan na halos kalahati ng ating returnees na ating inaalagaan ngayon ay ma-i-release na at makakapiling na uli finally ‘yong kanilang mga family,” he said.
Evangelista said the ICF is hopeful that the employers of the GCTA returnees under custody will also accept them back because what happened is not their fault.
“Gagawa rin ng paraan ang pamunuan ng ICF, to issue a certificate or kausapin in any other way, inform na makipag-ugnayan sa employers ng sa gayon ay muli silang tanggapin sa kanilang mga trabaho,” he said.
Evangelista admitted that the oversight committee took long on evaluating the records of the returnees as it was done individually.
“Naging matagal sapagkat tinitingnan nila isa-isa. Hindi lang ako exact kung ilan talaga ang figures sa ibang colony, let’s say sa amin 185, sa NBP 2,200 plus. With the entire operating prison and penal farms, isa-isa, and it takes time,” he said.
The deadline for the GCTA grantees to surrender was on September 19.
On October 8, there were seven returnees who had escaped from the ICF. Five were re-arrested, but two remains in the run. which five had immediately recaptured while the two had escaped.
On October 14, four other returnees had escaped again from the ICF. But they had already been taken back into custody.
Evangelista said the names of six returnees who had escaped from the two separate incidents are included in the list of names given by BuCor to be released.
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