PNP can pursue inmates freed by GCTA who did not surrender
The Philippine National Police ( PNP) on Wednesday said they have the "go signal" to conduct manhunt operation against remaining convicts of heinous crimes freed through good conduct and time allowance (GCTA).
"There's already a go-signal to launch the manhunt. We are just waiting for the clean list to be transmitted to the PNP to aid our tracker teams," Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac, the PNP spokesperson, said in a message to reporters.
On Tuesday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed that suspension of manhunt operations were lifted as they transmitted a clean list to the Department of Interior and Local Government.
In a text message to The Daily Manila Shimbun, Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, DILG spokesperson, said they received the list.
"We received from the DOJ the initial batch of names of those prematurely released by the Bureau of Corrections," he said.
"We forwarded it to PNP and they are now the subject of a manhunt by tracker teams of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group," he added.
However, PNP said they are still verifying which office of them received the list.
DOJ ordered the suspension of operations after more than the expected number of inmates surrendered to the authorities.
As of now, the DOJ said 19 GCTA convicts did not heed to the 15-day surrender period of September 19 set by President Rodrigo Duterte. Ella Dionisio/DMS
