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Philippines' Duterte wants 1,700 freed inmates

locked up
Reuters4 September 2019, 9:07 PM GMT+8

Philippines' Duterte wants 1,700 freed inmates locked up

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visits ChinaMore

MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Wednesday

1,700 convicts who were freed early for good behavior should be sent back to
prison after questions were raised over the legality of their release.
Duterte told a news conference the 1,700 inmates, some of them imprisoned for
rape and murder, had 15 days to surrender or they would be considered fugitives.
"If I were you, I would surrender to the nearest police or military detachment
wherever you are now," Duterte said, adding he would offer a bounty for inmates
who failed to do so.
"I will place 1 million pesos ($19,065) per head, dead or alive," he said.
Duterte demanded the resignation of his prisons chief, accusing him of disobeying
an order not to release inmates convicted of heinous crimes.
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.

(Reporting by Karen Lema and Neil Jerome Morales; editing by Darren Schuettler)