MANILA — Former detainee and international criminal justice expert Raymund Narag raised concerns for an inmate or a Person Deprived of Liberty (PDL) whose total maximum penalty is only three years but stayed in detention for seven years.

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In a Facebook post, Narag said he chanced upon the PDL during one of his trainings on jail management in Cavite.

The PDL was arrested in 2017 at the height of the war on drugs of the Duterte administration.

The PDL entered into a plea bargaining agreement and pleaded guilty for a lesser offense. 

When the COVID-19 lockdowns were implemented, the court decision and order of the PDL’s release never came, Narag said in his post. 

Narag stated that a court staff was shocked to learn that the PDL was still languishing in jail. 

“Ay sori di pala namin napadala itong mga dokumento,” Narag said in his post, quoting the staff of the court. 

In his post entitled “Just-tiis”, Narag said the explanation from the court was the “lamest of explanations” he was given. 

Narag hoped that after training paralegal officers, they can easily identify PDLs in excess of their detention. 

“Why are these things continually happening? Why can we not design a way to detect PDLs who are needlessly languishing in jail?,” Narag asked. 

The Supreme Court has yet to issue a comment on the post of Narag.

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