MANILA—Some 130 convicts freed for supposed good conduct surrendered two days past President Rodrigo Duterte's deadline, the justice department said Saturday.
Justice spokesperson Markk Perete said the development brings the number of surrenderees to 2,139, who were freed under the good conduct time allowance law, which makes convicts eligible for early release depending on their behavior in prison.
Republic Act 10592, which increases the provisions of GCTA, came under public criticism and official scrutiny after the justice department said that rapist-killer Antonio Sanchez could be released from prison because of supposed good behavior.
Reports of the release of some 2,000 heinous-crime convicts since 2014 pushed the controversial law further into question.
Last September 4, Duterte ordered inmates freed under the GCTA law to surrender until Thursday or face warrantless arrest.
But most of the prisoners who surrendered were not heinous-crime convicts, the Philippine National Police said.
- With a report from Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News
good conduct time allowance, GCTA, Markk Perete, DOJ, Department of Justice, Rodrigo Duterte