Catapang wants CoA audit of BuCor

Catapang wants CoA audit of BuCor | Daily Tribune

Bureau of Corrections acting director general Gregorio Catapang Jr. will ask the Department of Justice to allow the Commission on Audit to look at everything his predecessor, the suspended Gerald Bantag, has been doing at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

Catapang said the recent discovery of the tunnel, the animals and the "kubols" or high-value inmates' housing at NBP represent just the "tip of the iceberg" that warrant a full audit of Bantag's administration of BuCor.

Whoever was in charge of the excavation project, "for a swimming pool underneath a swimming pool," must face "several liabilities such as illegal quarrying and the use of government resources for illegal activities," the former Armed Forces chief said.

"I am now asking Justice Secretary (Jesus Crispin) Boying Remulla to allow me to ask CoA to conduct performance, financial, and management audit here at BuCor. We have seen a lot of anomalies that fall under the expertise of the Commission on Audit," he said.

He cited the digging of the tunnel which he said was done without a permit, and thus fell under illegal mining or illegal quarrying.

The acting BuCor chief said it's now his problem how to close the tunnel which is very steep and may cave in anytime, an "accident waiting to happen," with the swimming pool on top falling below into the caves.

Noting the congestion at NBP, Catapang said he has appealed to inmates not to make exclusive the "kubols" and to allow everyone to sleep there. He said he has also ordered that the houses of worship inside Bilibid be also opened to the inmates.

"The conjugal visits at Bilibid, we have allowed anew, following what Senator Robin Padilla said that the bodily heat or needs of inmates should not be allowed to turn them into hotheads," Catapang said.

"I've already talked with the inmates regarding the 'kubols' — that they not be rented anymore. They should not turn that into a moneymaking scheme. Allow everyone to sleep there," he added in Filipino.

He said as many as five inmates can sleep in one "kubol," many more in the temples and churches inside the NBP.

Bantag was suspended for 90 days by President Ferdinand Marcos to give a free hand in the investigation on the murders of broadcaster Percival "Percy Lapid" Mabasa on 3 October, and the alleged Bilibid "middleman" who facilitated the journalist's killing, Cristito "Jun Villamor" Palaña.

Palaña himself was killed on 18 October, according to an autopsy, hours after self-confessed gunman Joel Escorial said the order to kill Mabasa came from within the NBP through Palaña.

Bantag was later tagged as a person of interest and then a "mastermind" in both killings.