Stench of De Lima, BuCor chief

Talk on the botched release of Mayor Antonio Sanchez brings back haunting images of the committed rape and ignited discussions on the reimposition of the death penalty in the Philippines. This whole fiasco confirmed that crimes do not end after sentencing to prison as it continues behind bars until one’s supposed release by fabricated reformation. In the study of criminology, there is what you call the Five Pillars of the Criminal Justice System — law enforcement, prosecution, courts, corrections and community. The sorry state in the Philippines has led to the pervading theme of corruption in all pillars and we have no one else but its leaders to blame for.

Detained Sen. Leila de Lima is a living breathing example of corruption in the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) for her tolerance and profiting from the illegal drug trade inside the penitentiary during her stint as Secretary of Justice of the Aquino administration. She is serving her detention under the guise of being politically persecuted — a claim she and her yellow henchmen have been communicating to the international community. The truth remains — De Lima consented and acquiesced to the corruption in BuCor, thereby contributing to the entire mess that we are still in.

Current BuCor chief Nicanor Faeldon is a reused, recycled official of President Rodrigo Duterte, and his time in government service must finally be put to a stop. In 2016, he was appointed commissioner of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) where he did nothing good. After appointing fellow military officers close to him, he centralized power to a single committee, which led to the release of billions of pesos worth of drugs to the streets of Manila. The biggest discovered shipment was shabu worth P6.4 billion released to a Valenzuela warehouse.

Senators have been very vocal in their disgust of Faeldon. Sen. Win Gatchalian of Valenzuela, obviously disappointed since the aforesaid shabu shipment was discovered in his district, took to Twitter and said, “I don’t know what to say sa galit ko! Pinalabas ni Faeldon ang P6.4 (billion) worth of illegal drugs sa BoC, ngayon naman, pinalabas niya isang rapist sa BuCor. Bakit nasa gobyerno pa itong tao na ito? (I don’t know what to say in my anger! Faeldon let go of P6.4 billion of illegal drugs from BoC. This time, he set free a rapist from BuCor. Why is this person still in government?)” Senate President Tito Sotto likewise tweeted, “Bakit lahat ng malipatan nitong official na ito may iskandalo? Saan kaya siya sunod ililipat? (Why is it that wherever this official is reassigned there is a scandal? Where will he be moved next?)”

Sen. Ping Lacson expectedly chimed in on this with his statement: “It is the biggest irony that while the government has spent so much time, energy and resources to build up intelligence, gather evidence leading to the arrest of big-time drug traffickers… here is Faeldon and whoever else were responsible by the stroke of their pens would release at least 48 drug convicts out of the 1,914 heinous crime convicts under questionable circumstances.” To recall, Lacson previously accused Faeldon of accepting P100 million as “welcome money” in BoC, to which the latter answered that the senator’s son has been smuggling and undervaluing cement into the country.

There will definitely be fireworks this week in the Senate with the start of the inquiries on the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law by BuCor. We will again have a feisty Sen. Richard Gordon, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, which already issued a subpoena to Faeldon. It was said that Faeldon will not attend the hearing, but we will never really know what to expect.

Faeldon has a knack for cheap theatrics, having appeared in the Senate wearing statement shirts and allowing himself to be detained after being contumaciously cited in contempt. If we remember, he was detained for six months during the BoC hearings, from September 2017 to March 2018, which included Christmas spent in Pasay City jail. It might not be far-fetched for him to be arrested and detained yet again for his refusal to attend the upcoming hearing.

Another concern is the directive of the Palace to bring back to prison those sentenced to heinous crimes, yet released pursuant to the faulty implementation of the GCTA law. Malacañang has to be careful with its words as this might be interpreted as an iteration of tokhang, meaning open season for convicted criminals in the streets.

But if there’s one issue that the senators have to pounce on, it is the untimely assassination of 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. Last 27 August, Traya was gunned down by motorcycle-riding men, effectively killing off vital testimonial evidence that may unearth the corruption in the BuCor. With the way things are shaping up, it’s going to be a messy series of hearings in the Senate.