The Supreme Court (SC) has ruled that persons convicted of heinous crimes are entitled to the benefits of Republic Act 10592, or the New Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law, according to Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director general Gregorio Catapang.

In a statement Tuesday, Catapang said that between 5,000 and 9,000 out of the 27,311 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) who were convicted for heinous crimes are expected to immediately benefit from the SC’s final ruling.

He added that with the ruling, he has formed a technical working group (TWG) to issue new guidelines in computing credit preventive imprisonment and time allowances but assured that PDLs who are sickly, terminally ill, and aged 70 years and above would be prioritized.

The BuCor chief also cited that 9,168 PDLs convicted of heinous crimes will be eligible for release if the computation is based on the date of detention or 5,039 if the computation is based on the date they are received in BuCor facilities.

“We want to assure everyone that we will be conducting a process that ensures that the repeat of last time’s alleged tampering of GCTA records during the time of former director general Nicanor Faeldon will not happen,” Catapang said.

He stressed that the ruling is now final and they are preparing for an IRR (Implementing Rules and Regulations) to implement it.

In other developments, Catapang disclosed that multiple heinous crime offenders will undergo additional psychological tests before being released back to society to ensure that they will not commit another crime.

“Because we don’t want to release people who are still unstable. And we don’t want to release them, they go back to society and they commit another crime again and then go back to us,” Catapang said.

Last year, the Supreme Court said the Department of Justice “exceeded its power of subordinate legislation” when it excluded persons convicted of heinous crimes from the benefits of the New GCTA law.  

According to Catapang, they seek to ensure that citizens are equally protected.

“We’re not really cutting off their release but we want to make sure that when they are released back to society, they will not be a burden, number one. They will not be a threat to society and that they are really stable to go back and be part of our society,” Catapang said.