Freedom for sale?
Heads should roll in this latest brouhaha at the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). A complete overhaul of the agency should even be considered amid allegations that there were monetary considerations in the early release of prisoners convicted of heinous crimes.
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III disclosed that it was impossible to erase from the minds of the people their suspicions that money and bribery were involved to free drug lords and convicts of heinous crimes.
The issue stemmed from the fact that the BuCor granted almost 2,000 inmates early release under Republic Act No. 10592 or Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law.
If the BuCor would be unsuccessful in addressing the issues surrounding its agency, Sotto said it would have to face the Senate’s budget hearing in October where a confrontation was inevitable. Sotto had already appealed to President Duterte to revamp the BuCor officers.
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The controversy began when the media reported the impending release of convicted rapist-murderer Antonio Sanchez, former mayor of Calauan, Laguna, apparently due to good behavior.
Sanchez was incarcerated for masterminding the murder of University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) graduating students Eileen Sarmenta and Allan Gomez in 1993. Sanchez raped Eileen and handed her over to his men to be sexually abused once more before she was shot in the face.
The issue became hotter when it was reported that convicts in the abduction, rape, and murder of sisters Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in Cebu in 1997 were released, although BuCor officials refused to confirm this.
There were other heinous crime convicts who were also granted freedom via GCTA. News came out that three or four Chinese drug lords were also freed.
Worse, there is no declaration of policy under the GCTA law that authorizes the BuCor chief, past or present, to release any prisoner, said Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto.
The intention of the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago was pure when she sponsored the law. It was meant to benefit inmates who showed good behavior and those who are sickly and old and help decongest jails. It was never meant to be exploited by abusive and corrupt officials.
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Editor’s Note: Robert B. Roque Jr. is a veteran journalist who started out as a correspondent for Manila Bulletin’s tabloid TEMPO in 1983. In 1989, at age 27, he rose to become the youngest associate editor of a newspaper of national circulation. In mid-2000, he took the helm of the paper as its editor until his voluntary retirement in 2012. He currently writes a syndicated column for TEMPO, Remate, and Hataw newspapers, the online news site Beyond Deadlines, and now for THEPHILBIZNEWS.COM. A former journalism lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas from 1992 to 2002, Roque is also an active member of the Lions Clubs International, the largest service club organization in the world, having served as head of the Philippine Lions (council chairperson) in Lion Year 2011-2012. His column appearing here regularly will be written in Filipino on Tuesdays and in English on Thursdays.