Duterte orders ”total revamp” in BuCor

September 18, 2019

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a "total revamp" at the Bureau of Corrections ( BuCor), Malacanang said on Wednesday.

In an interview, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte is "most likely" giving newly-designated BuCor chief Gerald Bantag a free hand to bring his own people in the agency.

"There's a total revamp at the Bureau of Customs...he'll (Duterte) remove all of them. Remove the officials, the employees," he said.

He added that even security guards at the New Bilibid Prisons would be transferred to the provinces.

The total revamp would be implemented due to "corruption" in the agency where some BuCor officials allegedly benefited from the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance Law and the alleged continuous illegal drug trade inside the national penitentiary.

In an interview by reporters on Tuesday night, Duterte said he chose Bantag as the new BuCor director-general because he is "professional" despite the criminal charges he is facing due to a grenade-throwing incident in Paranaque City Jail in August 2016 killing 10 people.

The blast was allegedly staged to summarily execute high-profile inmates. The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology denied it. 

"He (Bantag) was accused of killing several prisoners, allegedly because of a grenade. But I think there was a commotion there and he was charged with - for the crime of - for the crime of murder. But it was downgraded to homicide and since there is no conviction yet, in obedience to the rule of the presumption of innocence, I gave him a new job," Duterte said. 

Prior to his new post, Bantag was the regional director of BJMP in Mimaropa or Region IV-B. He replaced Nicanor Faeldon whom Duterte sacked due to GCTA mess. Celerina Monte/DMS