BuCor reviews court orders before releasing Lee, Cornejo

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is verifying court records and sentence computations before processing the release of Cedric Lee and Deniece Cornejo following a Court of Appeals ruling modifying their convictions in a case filed by TV host Vhong Navarro.

BuCor director general Gregorio Catapang Jr. said Monday the agency will request an official Entry of Judgment from the appellate court after a 25 September order directed the immediate release of the two inmates.

The bureau is also seeking a Certificate of No Pending Case from the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Taguig City to finalize their documentation.

In its modified ruling, the CA Special Seventeenth Division downgraded Lee and Cornejo’s convictions from serious illegal detention for ransom—which carried a sentence of reclusion perpetua — to grave coercion.

The modified penalty imposes a sentence of six months to three years, six months and 21 days.

Both inmates were received into BuCor custody in May 2024. However, bureau records indicate Lee and Cornejo are also serving a separate, successive sentence for a secondary grave coercion charge before RTC Branch 266 in Taguig.

Under penal rules, successive service of the two convictions yields a combined sentence ranging from four years and 21 days as minimum to seven years and 21 days as maximum.

According to BuCor calculations as of 26 September, Lee has accumulated 460 days of Good Conduct Time Allowance, giving him a credited time served of three years, 10 months, and 29 days.

His presumptive maximum release date under current calculations stands at 18 February 2030.

Cornejo has earned 440 days of GCTA and 75 days of Time Allowance for Study, Teaching and Mentoring, bringing her total credited time served to three years, nine months, and 24 days, with a presumptive maximum release date of 23 December 2029.

Catapang stressed that BuCor must complete its standard records-validation protocol, including verification of pending cases and final court entries, before any inmate can be formally discharged.