The Philippine National Police (PNP) will deploy tracker teams to hunt down 46 former prisoners who were earlier freed from prison via the controversial good conduct time allowance (GCTA) should the Department of Justice task it to go after the fugitives.

“If you are an escapee, you are wanted by the law and we will help the DOJ arrest these fugitives,” PNP officer-in-charge PLt. Gen. Archie Gamboa said in a press conference said on Monday.

The former inmates were granted freedom under the GCTA but surrendered to authorities in September after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a review of the law, but they reportedly escaped from the holding area of the Iwahig Penal Colony in Palawan the night of 9 November.

Eight of those who bolted the facility have since turned themselves in while the rest are still on the loose.

According to Gamboa, the PNP has yet to receive a list of the names of the escapees but is willing to start efforts in hunting them down through its local and regional commanda.

“I encourage the local penitentiary institutions to directly coordinate even down to the city or municipal level or provincial and regional centers so that there’s no more need for them to go here at the NHQ (national headquarters),” said Gamboa.

“They can do lateral coordination at the lowest level of the PNP units. Anyway it’s very simple. They are fugitives, they can be arrested anytime,” he added.