Duterte fires Faeldon

President Rodrigo Duterte said in a televised news conference that Undersecretary Nicanor Faeldon of the Bureau of Corrections would immediately resign for disobeying his order to halt the releases of convicted prisoners under the 2014 law. Officials are now demanding a review of the "Good Conduct Time Allowance" law.

Prison officials will be investigated by a special anti-corruption prosecutor called the Ombudsman in connection with the massive releases of convicts, Duterte said. A Senate Blue Ribbon committee has opened a formal inquiry into the releases.

Duterte ordered at least 1,700 prisoners who have been freed since the law took effect to surrender in 15 days, either for a re-computation of their jail time or for investigations to determine if they paid their way to freedom in corrupt deals with prison officials.

During the second Senate hearing on the implementation of a law increasing good conduct time allowance for prisoners, Lacson pointed out that Faeldon’s statements regarding his involvement in the now canceled release of Sanchez was confusing and inconsistent.

“Obviously he is lying or he was lying yesterday. He is lying today… There is no logical conclusion except that he is not telling the truth,” said by Sen. Lacson.

Lacson quizzed Faeldon on why he signed a memorandum that effectively approved Sanchez’s release order and canceled the same on August 20.

But Faeldon insisted it was not a release order but just a "memorandum of release" that should have started the processing of Sanchez. Faeldon then said he himself recalled the memorandum.

National police chief Gen. Oscar Albayalde ordered the deployment of police to track down the convicts, who police said in a statement "will be treated as fugitives if they choose not to surrender."

The releases sparked an outcry after it was reported that one of the convicts being considered for freedom was former Mayor Antonio Sanchez, who was convicted in 1995 in the killings of two university students. One was gang raped and then shot.

The 1987 Philippine Constitution abolished the death penalty but capital punishment was reintroduced in 1993, then abolished again in 2006. Duterte, who took office in 2016, has advocated harsh anti-crime measures and the return of the death penalty in the largely Roman Catholic nation.

A 2014 law allows for prisoners to be released early for good behavior.

It is being scrutinized by lawmakers after public outrage triggered by reports that a former mayor convicted of raping and murdering two university students in 1993 could have walked free before his prison term ended.

Close to 2,000 inmates serving a life sentence have been freed under the 2014 law, Senator Franklin Drilon said on Sunday, but their release orders were invalid because they were not approved by the Department of Justice Secretary.