Of thick faces, double standards

Why spare Aquino and his BuCor chiefs and reserve all attacks on Duterte and his BuCor chiefs?

You really get to wonder about the politicians’ thick faces when it comes to double standards and partisanships found in today’s legislature.

There have been calls for President Duterte to fire Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon if he is found to have committed serious lapses in ordering the release of rape and murder convict Antonio Sanchez, drug traffickers and other high-profile prisoners.

Others have called for the President to instantly fire Faeldon — especially by one yellow, who called for the resignation of Faeldon even before a Senate inquiry was called.

One wonders, did this yellow senator ever call for and demand of her yellow patron, former President Noynoy Aquino then, when the senator was a partylister in Congress, to have his BuCor chiefs fired, despite the fact that in his time he had prisoners he had released?

Yet in the past regime, they never demanded from the yellow president, who during his reign, had close to five hundred prisoners, convicted rapists and murderers, drug lords and others fire his BuCor chiefs? Why not, if these present senators now are pushing hard for Duterte’s Faeldon to be fired over releasing under for Republic Act 10592 or the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA)?

There’s even a senator today who was a known fugitive because he feared getting imprisoned in Philippine jails. Being a fugitive from the law but returned without being made to answer to the law since his return was obviously made possible by the then yellow president and even had invited him for a merienda.

That fugitive senator never was made to answer for his flight from the law.

And he thinks he has the moral authority to demand from the BuCor chief, with whom the senator appears to have an axe to grind, why he ordered the release of a convicted rapist-murderer? Faeldon spent his time in jail. The fugitive senator did not.

So Faeldon either signed the release order or recommended the release of certain prisoners but so did the former presidents’ BuCor chiefs who signed these same papers too. Why make it look as though Faeldon committed such a grievous sin when all past BuCor chiefs did the same and went on without being questioned and made to look guilty in the Senate?

Faeldon’s lawyer and spokesman Jose Diño Jr. issued a statement saying that the incumbent BuCor chief’s predecessors had also signed release orders under GCTA for prisoners, including those convicted for heinous crimes.

Diño’s statement stressed: “Did Faeldon sign GCTA approvals of heinous crime convicts? Yes, but so did all of his predecessors who, like him, relied on the expert review, validation and processing by an MSEC (management, screening and evaluation committee), which recommended the GCTA approvals.”

Faeldon’s spokesman bared that 2,159 convicts of heinous crimes had been released through GCTA from January 2014, when the law was fully implemented, to 20 August this year.

Of the 2,159 released prisoners, 939 were sentenced for rape, 874 for murder, 261 for drug-related cases, 42 for kidnapping, 32 for parricide and six for arson, three for bribery; and two for crimes not specified.

Of the 2,159 convicts, 445 of them were freed through GCTA under Aquino’s term when the law was passed, Diño pointed out.

Between January 2014 and 30 June 2016 at the end of Aquino’s presidency, the BuCor had released 194 rape convicts; 126 murder convicts, 105 imprisoned for dangerous drugs; 10 sentenced for kidnapping, nine parricide convicts; and one convicted of bribery.

Former chiefs of the BuCor between 2014 to 2016 are Gen. Franklin Jesus Bucayu, director from 2013 to 2015; Gen. Ricardo Rainier Cruz III (2015 to 2016); Police Chief Supt. Rolando Asuncion, officer-in-charge in 2016; and Benjamin delos Santos, director from 2016 until his resignation in 2017, when President Duterte was already serving his term.

Faeldon’s predecessors had also signed release orders under GCTA for prisoners, including those convicted for heinous crimes.

The nation hardly heard the hue and cry from these frigging sanctimonious legislators during the time of the yellow president and his BuCor chiefs. They certainly weren’t subjected to the same treatment they give Faeldon.

And the yellow media never brought this issue of released prisoners under the stewardship of their yellow president.

Why not? Why spare Aquino and his BuCor chiefs and reserve all attacks on Duterte and his BuCor chiefs?

And where were the strident voices of the legislature then during the Aquino regime?

Weren’t the BuCor chiefs doing their job according to what the rules and requirements say? It says that the MSEC “shall be responsible for the screening and evaluation of entitlement for GCTA,” and would “evaluate records… to determine the degree of participation of PDL (persons deprived of liberty) in development and work activities.”

Enough already. Now even the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) wants to investigate Faeldon.

The PACC said it will conduct its own probe on the release of more than 1,900 inmates. PACC Commissioner Greco Belgica said the commission would also quiz Faeldon and other officials on GCTA implementation.

“We want to see the documents and hear his (Faeldon) side and explanation on what transpired with the GCTA and the freeing of these 2,000 criminals or prisoners,” Belgica was quoted as saying.

But hey, the PACC should start its all out corruption fight on one of its members: Belgica, who seems to think that P100,000 “gifts to cops is no big deal and of no value.