Bureau of Corrections execs face graft raps for favoring Jalosjos

MANILA, Philippines - Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) director Oscar Calderon and three other ranking officials of the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa are facing a graft complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly giving undue preference and unwarranted benefits to former congressman Romeo Jalosjos, who was released from jail March last year.

In an 18-page affidavit, complainant Stephen Mark Whisenhunt, an American citizen convicted of murder in 1996, said the respondents’ actions have caused him undue injury since he should have been released five months ago.

Whisenhunt was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt for murdering his lover, Elsa Santos Castillo, and chopping up her body. He was sentenced to suffer the penalty of reclusion perpetua.

Do the math

By freeing the convict who has served his sentence based on a particular computation of Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) and refusing to employ the same to other inmates, Calderon and head executive assistant Bartolome Bustamante, assistant director for administration and reformation Teodora Diaz, and documents section chief Zenaida Hierco allegedly violated Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act 3019).

Whisenhunt said the supposedly “unofficial” re-computation of his prison sentence which he has obtained, deviated and failed to adhere to an earlier computation and or formulation dated March 18, 2009 BuCor officials used and submitted to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for the release of Jalosjos, who was convicted for raping a minor. 

The complainant said Calderon, Bustamante, Diaz, and Hierco’s “obstinate” refusal to adhere to and employ to him and other similarly situated inmates the computation of prison sentence used in the case of the former congressman constitutes a violation of RA 3019.

Section 3(e) of the law punishes acts of “causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence,” Whisenhunt’s complaint read.

Whisenhunt said that following the same DOJ-approved GCTA formulation, he is entitled to a credit of seven years, 11 months, and six days of GCTA as of Jan. 28, 2010.

However, the respondents allegedly refused to apply the same DOJ approved GCTA rules that Jalosjos benefited from because their “unofficial” computation only gives the complainant a credit of two years and two months.

Whisenhunt said because he stands to lose a GCTA credit of five years, nine months, and six days, Bucor officials are allegedly “arbitrarily prolonging his incarceration at the maximum security of the NBP.”

Whisenhunt took note of how the BuCor officials have allegedly kept silent and continuously failed to offer an explanation, not only on their purposeful discrimination and manifest partiality against him, but also the unwarranted benefits that they appeared to have extended to Jalosjos.

Whisenhunt further claimed that respondents’ acts of deliberately delaying, ignoring, and refusing to promptly respond to the repeated requests for recomputation and the issuance of an official copy thereof constitutes a violation of Section 3(f) of RA 3019.

The convicted killer also questioned the BuCor’s delay in implementing an amendment in its operating manual that gives a colonist privileges such as an additional GCTA of 10 days for each calendar month while he retains said classification aside from the regular GCTA authorized under Article 97 of the Revised Penal Code.