(Eagle News)–Senate President Tito Sotto believes President Rodrigo Duterte should sack all Bureau of Corrections officials.
Sotto issued the statement following a GMA news report BuCor director-general Nicanor Faeldon himself signed the release order of former Calauan, Laguna Mayor Antonio Sanchez, whose reported possible release under the Good Conduct Time Allowances law or RA 10592 outraged the public.
Sanchez was convicted of the killing and rape of Aileen Sarmenta and the killing of her friend Allan Gomez in the 1990s.
“Their travesty of Justice is condemnable!” Sotto said.
The report said based on a document GMA retrieved, an Aug. 20 release order was for an inmate named Antonio Leyva Sanchez, “who was found to have served 40 years upon retroactive application of RA No. 10592 and was certified to have no other legal cause to be further detained, shall be released from confinement.”
The family of Sanchez had said the former mayor’s release order had been signed on Aug. 20, but according to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, Faeldon told him he had not signed any release document.
Faeldon has yet to issue a statement on the GMA news report.
Guevarra has already put on hold the processing and computation of GCTA pending the completion of the work of a Department of Justice and Department of the Interior and Local Government tasked to review the guidelines for the same and the implementing rules and regulations of RA 10592.
The Palace has already clarified that the law, which increases the GCTA given to inmates, was clear it excluded from its coverage those convicted of heinous crimes, recidivists, escapees and habitual delinquents.
It said convicts of heinous crimes who have been released under the law should be sent back to jail until the completion of their prison term since they are not qualified to avail of the benefits of the law in the first place.
The Senate is slated to hold a hearing on the matter on Monday, Sept. 2.