Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon said Tuesday the Department of Justice (DOJ) had valid and legal reasons to seek the re-arrest of the 1,914 prisoners serving a life sentence but were wrongly released by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
“The law should be interpreted to give justice to the victims. An interpretation that unqualifiedly and unjustly favors the oppressor, rather than the victims, may cause people’s trust in our justice system to erode,” he stressed.
It also pointed to the case that was earlier cited by Drilon, People vs. Tan, where the Supreme Court ordered the re-arrest of a person who was erroneously released by a jail warden based on a GCTA, as a good legal basis for the re-arrest. Under the 2015 Department Order No. 953 issued by then acting justice secretary and now Supreme Court Associate Justice Benjamin Caguioa, the release of prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment or reclusion perpetua or high risk inmates, including former Mayor Antonio Sanchez, shall only be implemented with the prior approval of the justice secretary.
“But what is important is we use the law to give justice to the victims, not to side with the criminals. We can show it to the public by excluding those sentenced to heinous crimes from the benefits of the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law and by re-arresting these prisoners who were wrongly released,” Drilon said.
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