Duterte appoints military man as BuCor deputy

Revamp looming?

MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte has appointed a retired Army general as deputy director of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) amid the reported wholesale release of convicts for good conduct.

The appointment of retired Lt. Gen. Milfredo Melegrito as deputy director is seen as a possible prelude to the revamp of the penal agency now headed by Nicanor Faeldon.  

The President made the appointment before his four-day official visit to China.

Based on the list of new presidential appointees from Aug. 20 to 29 released by the Office of the President, the appointment of Melegrito came after his retirement as deputy commander of the Northern Luzon Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines last July 5.

Melegrito’s appointment came on the same day that Ruperto Traya Jr., chief administrator officer of the BuCor’s Inmates Document Processing Division, was killed by a motorcycle-riding gunman in Muntinlupa City.

While Duterte has yet to speak his mind over the BuCor controversy, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo was also drawn into the controversy since he served as defense counsel of one of the prisoners, convicted rapist and murderer Antonio Sanchez.

Panelo had said the President has ordered the review of all candidates for release and a halt to the impending release of Sanchez, saying he is not qualified under Republic Act 10592, or the law granting freedom for prisoners for Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA).

As Duterte returns from his China trip today, the BuCor remains in the middle of controversies after Sen. Panflio Lacson revealed that at least four convicted Chinese drug traffickers were released through the GCTA.

The BuCor had said it has released 1,914 prisoners convicted of heinous crimes due to GCTA since 2014.

Lawmakers and critics noted the possibility that Sanchez, the Chinese convicts and three of the seven convicted in the rape-slay of the Chiong sisters in 1997 could be among the 1,914 prisoners released, or were about to be released under the GCTA.

Following the controversy surrounding the wholesale release of prisoners, Senate President Vicente Sotto III called for a revamp of BuCor and the resignation of Faeldon.

Sotto said the Senate will conduct an investigation on the release of inmates convicted of heinous crimes, describing it as a travesty of a well-crafted law.

“The officials of the BuCor have to be held accountable for this. They abused the law. It was well-crafted… Was the law wrong? No. It was those who implemented it who were,” he added. “We’ll try to get to the bottom of it.”

Sotto said the usual practice is releasing aging or ailing convicts, out of humanitarian concerns.

“Usually, this will be those who are aging and ailing, not drug lords or murderers or rapists,” he added.

While it was not explicitly stated, Sotto said the law was clear that those convicted of heinous crimes should not be covered by the time allowance provision.

“Some were sentenced with death penalty originally, so how can you avail that? They (BuCor) interpreted it wrong,” Sotto said.

Sotto said money obviously changed hands in the release of prisoners convicted of heinous crimes.

He added the aborted release of Sanchez was a blessing in disguise that exposed the wrong interpretation of the GCTA.

Lacson, for his part, urged the family of Sanchez to testify on allegations of paying for the release.

Lacson said the Sanchez family can be invited to the Senate hearing to disclose who informed them of the pending release and if they were asked to pay certain amount to facilitate his freedom. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Janvic Mateo