How can the Bureau of Corrections allow the early release of almost 2,000 inmates who were convicted of heinous crimes, including 48 drug traffickers and some of those convicted in the infamous 1997 rape and murder of the Chiong sisters in Cebu?
The answer is simple: The same way that prison officials tried to and almost succeeded in releasing convicted rapist and murderer Antonio Sanchez, who was sentenced to seven life terms of 40 years each for the 1993 rape and murder of UP Los Baños student Eileen Sarmenta and the killing of her friend Allan Gomez.
We now know that Sanchez’s early release, by virtue of a law that reduces prison sentences for “good behavior,” was not only a theoretical possibility, but one that had already been set in motion. Members of the killer’s family, in fact, had gathered at the New Bilibid Prison on Aug. 20, after prison authorities informed them of his release date. Only a leak—and the resulting public outrage—prevented them from following that release schedule.
The unofficial spokesman for President Rodrigo Duterte, a senator who used his first privilege speech to launch an ugly, viciously personal attack on a lawmaker who dared to question his pet program, insists that the Chief Executive did not authorize the prisoner release.
Given the President’s own hard line on drug offenders, we have no reason to doubt that this is true.
On the other hand, the President is ultimately responsible for whatever happens in his government, whether he knew about it at the time or not.
Certainly, he is responsible for appointing Nicanor Faeldon, a failed mutineer during the Arroyo administration, to his position as BuCor chief.
Not too long ago, Faeldon headed the Bureau of Customs, and was whisked off to head the BuCor after he allowed billions of pesos worth of shabu slip past port inspectors in 2017.
Now, he has let 48 drug traffickers slip from the hands of justice.
Senator Panfilo Lacson is absolutely correct when he points out that Faeldon’s continued presence in this government compromises the President’s anti-drug efforts.
"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 was 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," Lacson said in a statement.
When the President reassigned Faeldon to the BuCor, he said he still had trust in the former mutineer. Now, with something obviously rotten at BuCor, it seems apparent that the trust has been misplaced.