LOOK: Olongapo court's ruling granting US marine Joseph Scott Pemberton his Good Conduct Time Allowance and ordering BuCor to release him. Court says with GCTA, Pemberton has served 10 years 1 month and 10 days (only 6 years served in actual). @rapplerdotcom

Note that Pemberton was detained in a restricted facility in Camp Aguinaldo and not a jail like Bilibid, making his situation peculiar - how is his good behavior assessed or measured in this case? Does an American soldier enjoying VFA perks have better entitlement to a PH law?

There has also been no word from DOJ if it had granted GCTA to qualified convicts, more so released them, since Septemeber 2019 when the Sanchez scandal broke and it revised the IRR. Is Pemberton the first post-Sanchez GCTA grantee?

What we know is that GCTA has been suspended in BJMP facilities (where low-risk convicts are committed instead of BuCor), stranding them there amid the pandemic. A Naga judge has urged the DOJ to fast track the GCTA grants. There is no released GCTA uniform manual yet.

Which also raises the question – how can Pemberton avail of GCTA credits if there is no 2020 uniform manual yet? In the Laude family's appeal, they point out that there is no record of Pemberton's good conduct or participation in rehabilitation activities.

The DOJ has yet to answer our questions.

Note: Pemberton convicted of homicide. Homicide by itself is not among heinous crimes in repealed death penalty law, which DOJ uses as basis for definition a heinous crime. Pemberton was convicted of killing Jennifer Laude by arm-locking her and dunking her head on a toilet bowl