SC ruling blocks path to Sanchez’s release
Credit to Author: Jomar Canlas, TMT| Date: Fri, 03 Jan 2020 16:13:36 +0000
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the dismissal of the petition by former Calauan, Laguna mayor Antonio Sanchez, questioning his delayed release from prison.
Sanchez’s release was caught up in the controversy surrounding the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law for prisoners detained of liberty.
In a resolution, the court en banc junked the petition for failure to pay the required docket fees under Section 3, Rule 46 in relation to Section 2, Rule 56 of the Revised Rules of Civll Procedure.
It added that Sanchez failed to comply with the proof of service of the petition and insufficiency of the petition in form as to the verification.
He also did not submit the required number of copies of the petition.
Sanchez’s impending release after he was included in the list of prisoners who were supposed beneficiaries of the GCTA under Republic Act (RA) 10592.
His release was halted by the executive department after allegations surfaced about GCTA cases for sale inside the national penitentiary.
In a separate resolution of the Supreme Court en banc, dated Nov. 26, 2019, but was released just recently, the high court has ordered the joiner of the Convicted prisoners of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
The two petitions to be joined as ordered by the Supreme Court are under the “Inmates of New Bilibid Prison, as represented by Russel A. Fuensalida, Toshing Yiu, Benjamin D. Galvez, Cerilo C. Obnimage, Urbano D. Mison, Roland A. Gamba, Pablo Z. Panaga and Rommel R. Deang,” while the other petition involved the case of Narciso B. Guinto (Released and Rearrested Prisoner N216P-3611) et al. vs Department of Justice.
The court also ordered that the cases assigned to whoever was handling the Guinto case be consolidated with the Fuensalida case.
In a Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition, the convicted prisoners asked the high court to declare as illegal and unconstitutional pertinent provisions of the Revised Implementing Rules and Regulations of RA 10952.
Named respondents to the case were Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año, BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) chief Allan Sullano Iral.
They also asked the Supreme Court to order the BJMP “to refrain from retroactively applying the exclusions introduced under Section 1, last paragraph , of RA 10592, and its relation to Section 3, thereof, including Section 1, of Rule IV and Section 2, Rule VI of the 2019 revised implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of RA 10592, insofar as the provisions are disadvantageous to any prisoners.”
The said Revised IRR has made it explicit that convicts who committed heinous crimes, recidivists and escapees cannot qualify for GCTA.
The prisoners also asked the high court to compel Bucor to recompute the time allowances for prisoners and release them from prison upon proof that they have fully served their sentence.