MANILA, Philippines – Detained Senator Leila de Lima on Wednesday appealed to her colleagues in Congress not to repeal the Republic Act 10592 or the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law which recently came under heavy scrutiny due to the questionable release of some convicts.
In a statement, De Lima urged her fellow lawmakers to “dredge, foremost, into our collective consciousness, the merits of the GCTA law (both the original and amendatory provisions) as rooted in the restorative philosophy or principles that underlie our modern criminal justice and correctional systems.”
“Let not the legitimacy and the well-settled wisdom of the law be clouded or demolished by its misapplication, abuses in enforcement or wrongdoings on the part of the designated implementors of the law,” De Lima said.
She called on legislators to instead improve the law or its implementing rules and regulations, if necessary.
“But, please, let’s not abrogate it. To junk this law is to retrogress from hard-won triumphs in the legal universe. To paraphrase a line from a movie which tackles, in part, the fluid majesty of Law, ‘We ought not to be affected by the weather of the day, but should be by the climate of the era,'” she said.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senators Panfilo Lacson and Richard Gordon earlier filed a bill seeking to repeal the GCTA law, particularly the amendments in Articles 29, 94, 97, 98 and 99 of the Revised Penal Code as contained under RA 10592.
The bill was filed after a public uproar into the questionable application of the law following the aborted release of convicted murderer-rapist, former Calauan mayor Antonio Sanchez.
READ: 3 Senators want GCTA law repealed
The senators said the purpose of the measure is laudable in decongesting the overpopulated prison cells in the country.
“However, when it was enacted into law, it caused an absurd interpretation and its very provisions needed harmonization,” they said in a statement, adding that it has been subject to abuse by the persons allowed by law to grant time allowances.
Amid the Senate inquiry into the application of the GCTA law, some senators have moved to amend the law and called for the revision of its implementing rules by the Department of Justice and other concerned government agencies to avoid abuse and misinterpretation.
The law was passed and signed during the time of President Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino in 2013. Last June 2019, the SC ruled that the law could be applied retroactively.
De Lima was the Justice Secretary when the IRR of the law was crafted.
The post De Lima appeals to Congress not to repeal GCTA law appeared first on UNTV News.