Police Major Niño Lope Briones. CDN Digital photo | Alven Marie A. Timtim
CEBU CITY, Philippines –It would be best for convicts, who were released from detention with the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GTCA) law, to surrender the soonest possible time.
Police Major Niño Lope Briones, operations head of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Central Visayas (CIDG-7), said that the Philippine National Police (PNP) in partnership with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will be launching a manhunt operation against them as soon the 15 days ultimatum that President Rodrigo Duterte gave for their surrender would lapse.
By then, convicts will already be chased by law enforcers and considered as fugitives.
Read more: CIDG-7 to supervise voluntary surrender of convicts from Cebu freed under GCTA
“Mas maiging mag surrender nalang sila kaysa maging subject sila for the manhunt operations na e-conduct ng the whole Philippine National Police (PNP) or even baka kasama pa dito yung Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP),” said Briones.
(It would be best if they surrender now rather than wait to be subjected to a manhunt operation by the PNP with the help of the AFP.)
In Cebu, at least five convicts already surrendered to the police since last week. They were already turned over to CIDG-7 for custody.
Read More: 70-year-old convict freed through GCTA surrenders to Consolacion police
Briones said they also continue to monitor convicts involved in high-profile cases to make sure that they surrender.
However, he clarified that they have not tried to reach out to the family of Jozman Aznar, one of the convicts in the rape-slay of sisters Marijoy and Jaqueline Chiong, in respect of the 15 days ultimatum.
But he warned the Aznar family that they will have to arrest Jozman if he would refuse to surrender after the lapse of the President’s ultimatum.
“We are really compelled to conduct manhunt operation kung hindi nila isuko yung kapamilya nila,” said Briones.
(We are really compelled to conduct a manhunt operation that is why it is best if they convince their family member to surrender.) | dcb