Senator Panfilo Lacson said Friday he was baffled by the anti-corruption battle cry of President Rodrigo Duterte following the alleged corruption at the Bureau of Corrections.
“Yeah, I can’t understand anymore the anti-corruption battle cry of the President,” Lacson said.
“It seems that wherever [BuCor Director Nicanor] Faeldon is assigned, corruption issues hound him.”
In 2017 Lacson accused Faeldon of receiving a P100-million “welcome gift” when he assumed his post at the Bureau of Customs. But Faeldon denied the charge and filed a complaint against Lacson before the Senate’s Ethics committee.
Lacson also said moneyed convicts were being released like former Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez, the Chinese drug lords and those involved in the Chiong sisters’ kidnapping.
“I was informed that money talks in the NBP [National Bilibid Prison],” Lacson said.
He told dzBB radio three more foreign drug convicts had also been released for good behavior as he urged Immigration to stop the deportation of five other Chinese drug lords released from the New Bilibid Prison the past months.
“Aside from the five, there were three others released from the Davao Penal Colony. It was a Taiwan drug lord. In Palawan, two more, also drug lords, were released last April,” Lacson said.
He said Chen Tiz Zang, a convicted Chinese/Taiwanese drug lord, was released from the Davao Penal Colony in April. He said two other Chinese drug convicts were freed from the Palawan Penal Colony also in April.
Lacson said Chinese drug lords were being released using the Good Conduct Time Allowance, a reward for an inmate’s good behavior and deducted from the jail term the inmate needs to serve.
Earlier, Lacson said at least four Chinese nationals convicted of drug offenses were released by the Bureau of Corrections last June. He said another Chinese drug lord was turned over to Immigration for deportation.
Lacson said 48 of the 1,914 inmates who had availed themselves of the benefits of the law had been convicted of drug-related offenses.
Asked if he thought the GCTA law was being abused, Lacson said that should be looked into this coming Monday during the Senate investigation on the implementation of the good-conduct law for convicted felons.
The former head of the Philippine National Police expressed hope that the Justice department could still stop the deportation of the Chinese convicts who are still detained at the Bureau of Immigration.
He warned that once they were deported, the Philippine government could no longer go after them.
“They might return using another name and resume their drug trafficking activities,” Lacson said.
He also said those convicted for the abduction, rape and murder of the siblings Marijoy and Jacqueline Chiong in Cebu in 1997 had already been released from prison.
“The suspects in the Chiong sisters rape-slay were also released but the signatory was different. It was not Faeldon but by a certain Marquez, Lacson said.
“But only the BuCor director has the authority to release inmates.”