New Bilibid Prison is sitting on a goldmine of real estate property in Muntinlupa that is owned by the government.

“Sickening” is the word that first comes to mind with all the talk on the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and chief Nicanor Faeldon. The senators and commentators are correct — BuCor must be revamped, and Faeldon should immediately resign. But like a lot of big issues right now, this will probably fizzle out and die down after a few weeks. Before this happens, please allow me to make a case out of this.

First of all, the New Bilibid Prison is sitting on a goldmine of real estate property in Muntinlupa that is owned by the government. At 254 hectares, the property is far bigger than the Makati CBD (92 hectares) and Bonifacio Global City (39.7 hectares). It is very much accessible to SLEX through MCTEX, and the ongoing construction of the Skyway extension will soon allow motorists to get on/off the Skyway right at MCTEX.

For years, proposals and studies have been submitted for the transfer of Bilibid to Nueva Ecija, where a “mega-prison” will be constructed. This makes perfect sense since a bigger prison is needed for the growing number of inmates, and both the government and economy shall surely benefit from another CBD that is quite far from Makati, another option for workers who live south of Manila (e.g., Cavite and Laguna). However, this has not happened due to a multitude of legal and technical reasons that I cannot recall at this moment. With the current fiasco of BuCor, this proposal must be given a second look by our legislators. I remember reading that Senator Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa is supportive of the move.

The new “mega-prison,” wherever it will be constructed, must be big enough to house tens and thousands of inmates who will secured and monitored with the proper utilization of technology. I have been inside Bilibid and it is just your typical “city jail,” where padlocks are still used, that is 10 times in size. The new prison must have prison cells that can be open and shut with the use of a red button, and filled up with closed-circuit televisions in every corner. Technology will also allow the hiring of less guards, who, as we learned in the Senate hearings, exercise a lot of discretion that open them up to corruption.

In criminology, there is what you call the Five Pillars of the Criminal Justice — law enforcement, prosecution, courts, corrections, and community. BuCor is in the fourth pillar, to which the fifth pillar on community is dependent on. With the exposition ignited by the botched release of Mayor Antonio Sanchez, it is unthinkable how convicted criminals may ever be reformed, perhaps some are better off sentenced to death penalty.

A lot of this falls on the head of the office, chief Faeldon, who has consistently failed the President in all his appointments. As the previous Bureau of Customs chief, he allowed the release of P6.4 billion worth of shabu to the streets of Manila. He was likewise subjected to congressional investigations and found himself in a prison cell for six months after being cited in contempt by the Senate. Now, he faces the same Senate, now filled with more of his presidential allies, thereby friendly faces.

Yet for the record, may I say that I am personally for the firing of Faeldon, and the President really has no other choice. For having released the rapists of the Chiong sisters, he exhibited gross neglect of the law, particularly the Good Conduct and Time Allowance (GCTA) Law, since said rapists were convicted of heinous crimes. He must also be faulted for notifying the family of Antonio Sanchez that he will be released in a few months’ time.

This debacle turned even dirtier with the presidential spokesman, Secretary Salvador Panelo suffering as collateral damage, which is expected due to his acting as counsel of ex-Mayor Sanchez back in 1993. An endorsement of Secretary Panelo, addressed to a director of the Board of Pardon and Parole, surfaced to suggest that he exerted courtesies for his former client. He countered with his threat to file libel charges against certain media outfits that maliciously implicate him as the mastermind behind the botched release of Sanchez.

The Senate must focus on what happened to Ruperto Traya Jr., BuCor chief administrator 3, or the person in charge of the documentation of the inmates to be released pursuant to the GCTA Law. If there is another death to be investigated aside from that suffered by Mayor Sanchez’s victims and the Chiong sisters, it has to be the fishy and suspicious timing of the murder of Traya. May God bless his soul.