Multiple heinous crime offenders to undergo tests before release — BuCor

Multiple heinous crime offenders will undergo additional psychological tests before being released back to society to ensure that they will not commit another crime, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) assured Tuesday.

BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang issued this remark as he announced that the Supreme Court has ruled with finality that persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) who were convicted of heinous crimes are entitled to benefit from the law that shortens the prison terms of inmates through the good conduct time allowance (GCTA).

“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 at a press conference.

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 Republic Act (RA) No. 10592 or 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,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said that Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla told him to make multiple offenders a lesser priority while one-time offenders will be considered.

“Pero yung mga [But those] single heinous crime offenders, they can be considered for as long as one, they have served their sentence; two, they have undergone the reformation process; three, they are not anymore drug addicts; and then, of course, lastly, they… completed their reformation activities,” he said.

Catapang said that they will create a technical working group that will issue new guidelines in computing the time allowances of PDLs.

Despite this, he said that the recomputation will begin even while the recommended implementing rules and regulations (IRR) is still pending.

“We will do as fast as we can so that, yun nga, especially yung mga sickly, matatanda na, talagang terminally ill, they will be priorities. Siguro out of humanitarian concern,” he said.

Catapang expressed hope that at least 5,000 PDLs will be released by the end of the year. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News