MANILA, Philippines — Released convicted road rage killer Rolito Go was not freed under the controversial Good Conduct and Time Allowance law and should not be re-arrested, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said.
Guevarra told ANC's Headstart Friday that Go was not freed through GCTA alone. He said that in his recollection, Go has served his sentence fully.
Asked if PNP should be tracking down Go to return him to the Bureau of Corrections, Guevarra replied: “He is not supposed to be one of those convicted of heinous crimes who were prematurely released on account of GCTA.”
A local court convicted Go for murder, for shooting a student in a road altercation incident, in November 1993 and sentenced him to serve a life in prison.
In December 2016, the Supreme Court ordered the immediate release of Go as it upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeals and a local court to grant his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
The SC’s 10-page resolution dated Nov. 28, 2016 stated: “After crediting his preventive imprisonment of nine months and 16 days, and the regular Good Conduct Time Allowance and Special Credit Time Allowance granted upon him, Go has completed serving his sentence of 30 years on Aug. 21, 2013.”
Police Lieutenant Colonel Kimberly Molitas, in a press conference also Friday morning, said that Go was advised to surrender to authorities following President Rodrigo Duterte’s order for heinous crimes convicts released through GCTA law.
“But he has sought his counsel and he was advised not to because he was not a beneficiary of the previous law, not the new law so he did not turn in himself,” Molitas, PNP’s deputy spokesperson, explained.
Molitas was referring to the time allowances provided by the Revised Penal Code.
To note, the partial extinction of criminal liability of an inmate, through conditional pardon, commutation of sentence and good conduct allowances, has been included in the Revised Penal Code as early as 1930.
The controversial GCTA law, which expanded the time allowances for good conduct, meanwhile was passed in 2013.
Duterte ordered convicts of heinous crimes who benefited from the GCTA law to surrender themselves to authorities, or they will face re-arrest as convicts.
The PNP however heeded the request of the DOJ and put on hold arresting the freed convicts pending the “cleaned up” list of those who should be returned to the Bureau of Corrections. — Kristine Joy Patag