Prioritize elderly, sick, PWD in executive clemency — solon

A lawmaker has called on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prioritize the elderly, sick, and persons with disabilities (PWDs) in recommending the grant of executive clemency to persons deprived of liberty (PDL) this Christmas.

Bicol Saro party-list Rep. Brian Yamsuan, a member for the majority in the House Committee on Justice, said that his call is in accordance with the 2023 Resolution of the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP), which states that "PDLs who are 70 years old and, even if they are considered high-risk, if they have already served 10 years of their sentence, should now be considered for executive clemency, especially if they are suffering from old age, being sickly, or terminal or life-threatening illnesses or other serious disability."

"This [Resolution should] mean[s] that more elderly, critically ill PDLs could be recommended for executive clemency because the period of the mandatory minimum sentence service has been lowered to 10 years from the previous 15 years," said Yamsuan, who is the author of House Bill 8672 establishing the Department of Corrections and Jail Management (DCJM) to address the perennial problems of congestion and corruption in prison facilities.

The BPP, an agency under the Department of Justice (DOJ), is tasked to recommend qualified PDLs for clemency.

"We are hopeful that the President would act on these recommendations for humanitarian reasons. Christmas is a time for mercy and compassion. It is also a time that should be spent with one's family," he added.

The revised rules and regulations of the BPP provide that executive clemency refers to "reprieve, absolute pardon, conditional pardon with or without parole conditions and commutation of sentence as may be granted by the President of the Philippines."

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Yamsuan said, already facilitated the release of more than 11,000 PDLs since the start of the Marcos administration as part of the government's jail decongestion program.

Yamsuan said he has also been informed that the PDLs freed by BuCor have undergone its Reformation and Release Program, implemented through the mentorship of the state-run Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).

As for the other PDLs qualified for release either through pardon, parole, or having served their maximum sentence, Yamsuan said they should be given the proper training and assistance so that they can start to rebuild their lives and become productive individuals.

"Providing appropriate interventions to PDLs to prevent them from becoming repeat offenders is another strategy to help decongest the country's overpopulated penal and detention facilities," Yamsuan said. — VDV, GMA Integrated News