A MAN convicted of murder, who was serving his sentence at a prison facility in Occidental Mindoro but was released along with many others across the country due to the now controversial Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law, voluntarily surrendered to the police in Mabinay, Negros Oriental over the weekend.
Chief M/Sgt. Edilberto Euraoba III, spokesperson of the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office (NOPPO), on Monday confirmed that the convict, identified as Ernesto Silorio Sinda, is now in the custody of the Mabinay Police Station awaiting his transfer and return to the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro.
Sinda, 59, formerly a resident of Barangay Tambuhangin, Amlan, Negros Oriental and currently residing in Barangay Campanun-an in Mabinay, presented himself to the police at around 9 a.m. on Saturday after learning through news reports that his GCTA was canceled.
He was released from the Occidental Mindoro institution last Aug. 23 through Correction Order 0523-S-2019, pursuant to the memorandum dated Aug. 9, 2019, from Nicanor E. Faeldon, then the Bureau of Corrections director general.
The Regional Trial Court Branch 30 in Dumaguete City sentenced Sinda on February 1, 2001 to a definite prison term of 40 years for two counts of murder.
Sinda is the first convict in Negros Oriental who has surrendered to the police after President Rodrigo Duterte had ordered heinous crime convicts released earlier through the GCTA law to surrender to authorities.
More than 1,900 heinous crime convicts have reportedly been released on account of good conduct during the watch of Faeldon, who has now been fired from his post.
Meanwhile, the NOPPO through the different police stations, has disseminated information through their respective community engagements on President Rodrigo Duterte’s order for GCTA-released convicts to voluntarily surrender to authorities, Euraoba said.
BuCor will pay for the necessary expenses for Sinda’s return to the prison facility in Occidental Mindoro, he added. (By Mary Judaline Partlow)
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