EDITORIAL - GCTA Law should be reviewed

It was indeed shocking to learn about the report that some of those convicted in the kidnapping and murder of Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong have been released from detention two decades following their convictions.

A report from CNN Philippines said Josman Aznar, Alberto Allan Caño, and Ariel Balansag have been released from the New Bilibid Prisons after serving 20 years under the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law.

The three convicts, who were ordered released on August 16, were reportedly eligible to benefit from Republic Act No. 10592 because they were "certified to have no other legal cause to be further detained” and “shall be released from confinement,” according to documents obtained by CNN Philippines.

Earlier, Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said the Chiong case convicts may also stand to benefit from the GCTA Law. And their release was later confirmed by Senator Panfilo Lacson, who said he feared that money could have been involved.

Thelma Chiong, the mother of the two sisters, has reasons to cry foul over the release of those behind the kidnapping and killing of her daughters. For Mrs. Chiong, those convicts should have not been granted release since they were sentenced to death.

We cannot blame Mrs. Chiong if, like Lacson, she believes that money has something to do with the release of those convicted for her daughters’ deaths, given the fact that some of them are scions of well-to-do families in Cebu.

There is really a need for the government to suspend the GCTA Law and conduct a thorough review of it, especially on the provisions that qualify those convicted of inhuman acts as beneficiaries.