Duterte orders total revamp at BuCor

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Alexis Romero (The Philippine Star) - September 19, 2019 - 12:00am

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has ordered the “total revamp” of the Bureau of Corrections
(BuCor), which is under fire for the premature release of heinous crime convicts and the alleged giving of
perks to moneyed inmates.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said Duterte wanted a top-to-bottom revamp to cleanse the
bureau of corruption.

“(It’s a) total revamp in the Bureau of Corrections. He (Duterte) told me the guards there would be
transferred to the provinces. He will transfer the provincial guards to the BuCor,” Panelo told reporters
yesterday in Malacañang.

Panelo said career officials of the bureau would be placed on floating status. The revamp would give
newly appointed BuCor chief Gerald Bantag a free hand to select people who would work with him, he
added.

It was unclear whether the revamp would affect the deployment of Special Action Force members at the
national penitentiary.

The bureau has been placed under scrutiny after it was revealed that 1,914 heinous crime convicts were
released even if they are not qualified to benefit from the law on Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA).
The law, which was signed in 2013, reduces the jail time of convicts who display good behavior.
In recent Senate hearings on the GCTA law, former BuCor officials detailed supposed irregularities at the
New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa, including allowing high-profile inmates to avail themselves of
the services of female entertainers, the selling of gadgets, alcohol and cigarettes to inmates, round-the-
clock gambling inside prison cells and the pocketing of the inmates’ food budget by corrupt officials.

The former officials also detailed the alleged pooling of inmates’ money to be given to newly appointed
BuCor chiefs, and the supposed “hospital passes for sale” scheme.

Last Tuesday, Malacañang announced the appointment of Bantag as corrections chief as part of the
effort to rid the bureau of irregularities.

Bantag, regional director of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and a former
Parañaque City Jail warden, replaced Nicanor Faeldon, who was fired for disobeying Duterte’s order not
to release high-profile convicts under the GCTA law.

Bantag made headlines in 2016 when a grenade killed 10 inmates at the Parañaque jail under his watch.
He was charged with ten counts of murder in connection with the incident.

Last Tuesday, Duterte said Bantag’s murder case has been downgraded to homicide but the case remains
unresolved.

“Since there is no conviction yet, in obedience to the rule of the presumption of innocence, I gave him a
new job,” the President told reporters.

“I think the case is in court. He’s facing homicide charges. I don’t think that he did it. If he did, then he
may be convicted. But in the meantime, gusto ko siya kasi nagtatapon ng granada daw (I like him
because he reportedly throws grenades).”
Read more at https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/09/19/1953146/duterte-orders-total-revamp-
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