ticket to hell belongs to somebody else; yet, mercy still has a place.

There were two sets of tears flowing during the Senate hearing on the matter of the Bureau of Corrections’ (BuCor) alleged abuses in the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law on some select or “favored” inmates, such as former Calauan mayor Antonio Sanchez.

One set of tears was steaming hot and banging on justice or death to the rapist-killer inmate, while the other set was begging for mercy even if remorse and the intention to pay damages decided by the court were wanting.

The former belongs to the family of Eileen Sarmenta and the other to the Sanchez’s.

It is all about justice and mercy, or justice versus mercy or justice over mercy.

Paranoid over the attempt of Sanchez walking free out of Muntinlupa, the populace, the netizens, suddenly were thirsting for blood and revenge to its fullest, while putting forward the biblical adage, “An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth” or the lex talionis.

No mercy, indeed, a collective hatred and vendetta.

Not even Sen. Roland “Bato” de la Rosa’s positive dent on the botched release of Sanchez as, “Let’s give him a second chance,” assuaged the bashers who crowded his Twitter account of all the negative remarks from all over.

Executive clemency, parole, pardon based on good conduct and, of course, the longevity of a sentence’s tenure, grave illness and age are some of the justifications why sometimes inmates are gratuitously afforded an opportunity to finish their sentences outside of the grilled penitentiaries.

Being released due to the above-mentioned is not at all a right, not even a privilege, but rests solely on humanitarian considerations, but not without the meticulous scanning of the inmate’s meritorious suitability to enjoy such.

Inmates may have been indicted, convicted and sentenced, but not judged or condemned to hell for eternity. Judgment or giving a one-way ticket to hell belongs to somebody else; yet, mercy still has a place.

As an outcrop of this outcry, that saw the BuCor chief heading for the exit with his head still attached to his body, all those released through the GCTA are being recalled or ordered recaptured with a “shoot-to-kill order” should they refuse violently to retrace their steps towards the “hellish” prison cells of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

We just hope that those over 2,000 inmates mostly convicted for heinous crimes, such as murder, rape, drugs, kidnapping and bribery, being recalled should undergo a rigorous reinvestigation of the merits of their respective releases.

Those who really deserve the grant, those who did not dish out bribe money nor use influence to merit the favor should be allowed to remain free. These are people who served the corrective and punitive justice well through good conduct while serving time, and that now beyond justice deserved to be given a bit of mercy.

However, those who paid their tolls fees on the way out should be summoned and if possible be convinced to revert to being collaborative or hostile witnesses, whistleblowers and “traitors,” so as to confess to the bribery with their tango-mates inside the national penitentiary or related agencies, for instance those who authorized and signed their release.

However, being the bribers themselves, they should further serve the rest of their sentences inside the steel bars of NBP.

Surely, they would love to be joined by their former chief and officers in the prison cells!