The Palawan Provincial Police Office said Wednesday afternoon that there is no directive for them to conduct a manhunt for the released convicts of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law in Palawan.
P/Capt. Ric Ramos, spokesperson of Palawan Provincial Police Office (PPPO), said the Philippine National Police (PNP) were only given orders by President Rodrigo Duterte to monitor and cater surrenderees in every municipal police station.
“Hindi naman natin sila huhulihin. Surrender ‘yan, kumbaga pupunta sila sa stations natin para magpa-account. Monitoring natin ng GCTA as per directive ni President, automatic na sila ang pupunta sa pinakamalapit na police station,” he said.
Ramos also added that one of the reasons that there is no manhunt operation is that they were not given the names and addresses of the GCTA grantees and they are only asked to cater the surrenderees.
“Unang-una, wala tayong listahan ng pangalan kasi iba naman ‘yan [naka-assign diyan] ‘yong Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm, kung saan naman sila malapit doon din pupunta lang sila magpapa-account pero ‘yong sabing mag-iikot, magbabahay-bahay hindi,” he said.
Last week, President Duterte ordered the heinous crime convicts to surrender within 15 days.
Convicts who will not surrender will be considered as fugitives and those who will surrender in good faith will not be sent back to jail by the power of their release orders.
Ramos also mentioned that as of now, there are eight surrenderees of GCTA who voluntarily went to their stations.
The information of the surrenderees are still being gathered by their office.
