MANILA, Philippines - Even if he was not satisfied with the answers of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Ernesto Diokno, President Aquino said yesterday that he will wait for the final outcome of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) investigation regarding the case of convict Jose Antonio Leviste.
“I’m hoping they (DOJ) finish the investigation by Wednesday (May 25). BuCor is under them. There is a need to go through a process,” Aquino told reporters in a chance interview at the SMX Convention Center, where he was guest speaker at the UP College of Medicine graduation.
The President will be leaving on Thursday for a state visit to Thailand.
He said he already summoned the former police general when he read in the newspapers last week that Leviste was caught by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation leaving the prison facility for his building in Makati City.
The President said he immediately called Diokno to explain the Leviste caper and he was not satisfied with the latter’s explanation.
“There is a corresponding action when trust and confidence is lost,” Aquino said in Filipino, implying revocation of Diokno’s appointment as head of BuCor.
The President also fended off criticisms that he was more resolute in removing government officials if they were not his close friends, as in the case of former Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) chief Prisco Nilo.
“I hope you check your facts. He was given a chance to fix the system at PAGASA. Maybe you can ask (Science) Secretary Mario Montejo how long the process took before he (Nilo) retired,” he justified.
With regard to the mess at the New Bilibid Prisons, Aquino said he was leaving it up to the DOJ panel to study the relevant policies of the government, and the violations that were committed by the convicts as well as the officials.
“We need a director of the bureau who is on the ball all the time,” he said.
‘The buck doesn’t stop here’
The latest incident may have placed Diokno in a bad light, but BuCor administrative division chief Teodora Diaz told The STAR that the bureau’s director had no hand in the monitoring and implementation of rules on living-out privilege violated by Leviste when he was caught in his building in Makati City last Wednesday.
“In our rules, command responsibility ends with the superintendent of NBP (New Bilibid Prisons). It just so happened that Director Diokno’s office is inside the NBP compound, but it doesn’t mean that he is responsible for any violation in living-out privileges,” Diaz explained.
She said that this rule also goes with six other institutions and penal colonies under the BuCor.
“If something went wrong in an institution under the BuCor, it should be the superintendent who should do the explaining. In this case, the NBP superintendent is Ramon Reyes. The function of the office of BuCor director is more on policy. The implementation and monitoring of rules belong to the superintendents,” Diaz stressed.
The official attested that Diokno has implemented reforms in the BuCor since being appointed by President Aquino in October last year.
Diokno, she recalled, also made a categorical instruction when he assumed his post that there would be no VIP treatment for high-profile inmates: “He immediately ordered the removal of appliances inside cells at the maximum security compound.”
Right after the incident involving Leviste, Diokno ordered the cancellation of all “sleep-out” privileges for 109 minimum-security compound inmates.
Diaz added that the nipa hut of Leviste shown in TV reports was not VIP treatment.
“He was granted sleep-out privilege before for his ‘billion trees project’ inside the NBP. That is allowed in the rules. They are allowed to build huts inside the penitentiary premises for their respective projects,” she said.
She gave assurance that the BuCor and NBP would cooperate with the fact-finding investigation of the DOJ aimed at pinpointing who else should be held liable for the incident.
Leviste and driver Nilo Solis were charged last Friday before the Makati City metropolitan trial court with evasion of service of sentence, punishable under Article 157 of the Revised Penal Code.
Leviste is not alone
Meanwhile, the family of road rage victim Eldon Maguan asked the DOJ to designate a team of physicians to treat “living out prisoners” at the NBP, including convicted murderer Rolito Go, to prevent them from leaving the prison premises.
Rosario Maguan, mother of Eldon, appealed to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to reject Go’s application to go out of prison today for medical treatment because “it is only the convict’s alibi to visit his family in Quezon City, which he had been doing since 2008.”
Mrs. Maguan learned from sources that Go’s “indefinite passes” issued by the DOJ last year to leave the NBP compound had expired.
She said Go’s medical abstract findings of Dr. Rolando Mangune of the Las Piñas General Hospital conducted December last year did not state that the convict has a serious and life threatening illness.
“All we know is that Mr. Go only has massage and not medical treatment every time he goes out of the NBP,” said Mrs. Maguan.
Go, however, claimed that he was suffering from colon cancer and is going out almost every day for his radiation and chemotherapy sessions.
Mrs. Maguan said the DOJ, in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH), must immediately assign doctors and medical experts, including dentist and nurses, to take care of the prisoners and to avoid trips outside the prison facility without certification and permit from concerned agencies.
Go was sentenced in 1994 to a maximum of 30 years imprisonment for the killing of Eldon Maguan during a road rage fit in Greenhills, San Juan. A high-profile inmate, Go was placed under the “living out inmate” status in 2008.
In a media interview inside the NBP, Go said he goes out six times a month.
“Last year, I go out almost every day for chemotherapy sessions,” he said.
Like Leviste, Go said his regular check-up is also conducted in a Makati hospital.
However, Rosario said a reliable source informed them that Go, instead of going to the hospital, would proceed to his house in Quezon City, and then return to the NBP late at night to avoid recognition by law enforcers.
In a separate interview, DOJ Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III said Go could no longer use the pass given to him by the DOJ.
Baraan, who conducted an ocular inspection at the NPB together with the DOJ’s five-man probe panel, said he remembered seeing an application for a pass from Go late last year or early this year, “but he cannot use that now because it’s been a while.”
De Lima also explained that inmates were given passes on “a case to case basis.” She recalled having issued a 3-hour pass to an inmate whose father had died.
The Maguan family also asked De Lima to look into reports that Go uses two cell phones to continue transacting his construction business while inside the penitentiary.
The Go family was engaged in big-time government deals before the Pasig Regional Trial Court sentenced him for the killing of Eldon in 1991.
Go managed to have two cell phones, a prohibited item inside the NBP, because he gave loans to jail guards, sources told Mrs. Maguan. – Edu Punay, Non Alquitran