MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice will process at least 100 applications on relaxed guidelines for parole and executive clemency weekly, President Rodrigo Duterte told the Congress.
In his weekly report, the president said: “The prison records of an initial batch of 200 [Persons Deprived of Liberty] are now being reviewed pursuant to the Interim Rules, and at least 100 PDLs will be deliberated by the [Board of Pardons and Parole] on a weekly basis.”
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Duterte is referring to the BPP Resolution issued April 15 that reduced the minimum age of executive clemency application to 65 years old from 70, and trimmed down documentary requirements for parole review.
The guidelines, crafted as part of DOJ’s study for release of prisoners on humanitarian reasons, will take effect on May 15.
“The BPP and the Bureau of Corrections are compiling prison records and documents of PDLs who may benefit from the new rules in order to expedite the processing of their application and facilitate the early release from prison of qualified beneficiaries once the Interim Rules take effect,” Duterte also said.
BPP and BuCor are under DOJ.
These new guidelines, however, do not cover convicts of heinous crimes or illegal drugs-related crimes, or those classified by the Bureau of Corrections as high-risk.
The resolution will be effective while the state of national emergency is in place.
Releases of prisoners on trial
Meanwhile, the Public Attorney’s Office “has started filing the necessary motions and pleadings aimed at securing the immediate liberty” of some 1,359 PDLs, Duterte said in his report.
Duterte said the motions were filed following the Supreme Court Office of the Court Administrator’s circular.
While the circular mentioned in the report referred to a directive on designation of commercial court and family court judges, a separate order from the OCA dated April 20 was issued for the release of qualified PDLs under a 2014 en banc resolution.
The said circular reminded municipal and regional trial court judges of guidelines on self-recognizance and provisional dismissal and told them to conduct an inventory of pending criminal cases.
The SC said last week that data from OCA showed that no less than 9,731 PDLs were released from March 17 to April 29, 2020 due to directives aimed at decongesting jails.