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The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has released 87 former prisoners who heeded President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to surrender despite not being covered by the directive, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Monday.

“The BuCor has confirmed the release of the third batch of 35 PDL (persons deprived of liberty) surrenderers, bringing the total to 87 so far,” Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete said in a message to reporters.

Prison authorities are releasing surrenderers who they say should not have turned themselves in because the reason for their freedom was unrelated to good conduct time allowances (GCTA).

Duterte ordered 1,914 convicts of heinous crimes, whom the government says were “prematurely” released because GCTAs erroneously shortened their sentences, to surrender or be labeled as fugitives and hunted down by police.

But the number of surrenderers exceeded the expected figure, reaching more than 2,000 as of last week, and officials say even those who were released on pardon, parole, or were acquitted or not even convicted of heinous crimes might have returned to BuCor custody.

The DOJ and the BuCor are cleaning up the list of released convicts provided by the bureau that turned out to contain numerous errors.

Officials say the cleaned up list will be turned over to the police to serve as a basis for the rearrest — warrantless, for alleged evasion of sentence — of those who should have surrendered on or before the September 19 deadline but did not. —NB, GMA News