Manhunt for GCTA-freed convicts who refuse to surrender begins at midnight – Sinas

Police Brigadier Debold Sinas, the director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) | CDN Digital File Photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The convicts freed through the controversial Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law who failed to surrender today, September 19, 2019, will be considered fugitives by tomorrow, September 20.

This was the warning of Police Brigadier Debold Sinas, the director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) to the convicts who still refuse to surrender on the deadline set by President Rodrigo Duterte.

The GCTA convicts were ordered to surrender to authorities following reports of corruption in the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor)  involving the implementation of GCTA, which allows convicts to be released ahead of their prison term if they were proven to have shown good conduct while serving their sentence.

President Duterte gave an ultimatum of 15 days fo the convicts to surrender, or else they will be considered fugitives. The deadline is today, September 19.

Sinas said they were already given directives to begin the manhunt operations by midnight for the remaining GCTA convicts who will try to avoid going back to jail.

“We will be forming a group composed of CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) personnel and  to focus on the manhunt operations,” he said.

However, Sinas also said that GCTA convicts may still surrender even after the deadline and the police stations in the region will accept to them.

He said the manhunt operations will only be done to run after those who will refuse to surrender.

“I appeal to them to simply surrender so we can avoid complications and process their cases faster,” he said.

Sinas assured that surrenderers will be treated fairly and their return to jail with be processed immediately. All surrenderers from Central Visayas will be transported to BuCor Leyte for processing. /elb