DOJ chief urged: Transfer VIP inmates to Palawan penal farm

MANILA, Philippines - Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should transfer more than 500 inmates reportedly receiving special treatment at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) to the Iwahig penal farm in Palawan, the family of road rage victim Eldon Maguan said yesterday.

Grace Maguan, the treasurer for the anti-crime group Crusade Against Violence, also appealed to De Lima to initiate reforms at the NBP by dismantling huts and other temporary quarters built by her brother’s killer, Rolito Go, and former Batangas governor Jose Antonio Leviste.

De Lima said the other day that President Aquino wants inmates moved to the Iwahig penal farm to decongest the national penitentiary, which houses about 23,000 inmates serving their sentences.

The NBP houses about 23,000 convicted inmates who are serving their sentences. According to official data from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), 99,000 people are detained in Philippine prisons, including nearly 59,000 with ongoing trials.

Grace said 109 inmates with “sleep out” privileges and 419 “living out” inmates should be the first to be transferred to the penal colony. She said sources told her Go receives both privileges and lives in his own kubol or hut within the sprawling NBP reservation.

Go, who was sentenced to serve 30 years in jail for killing Maguan during a traffic altercation, reportedly has a concrete hut near that of the huts previously occupied by rape convict and former Zamboanga del Norte congressman Romeo Jalosjos.

Leviste also lived in his own hut within the NBP reservation when he was arrested in Makati City May 18 for leaving the minimum security compound without a permit. He is currently detained in the maximum security compound.

Grace said Go – who was in the construction business before his conviction – has the financial capacity to build his own shelter and reportedly pay for “special treatment” while serving his sentence at the NBP.

“Officials of the BuCor, BJMP and NBP grant several inmates and criminals special living arrangements and privileges and even facilitate their escape in exchange for bribe money,” she alleged.

Grace also said the NBP is allegedly the only national penitentiary where anyone can freely walk in and out of the prison compound without being noticed. She asked De Lima to further investigate corruption and anomalies in the national penitentiary to determine who else were accorded VIP treatment apart from Leviste and Go.

Grace said scandals haunting the Philippine prison system is an insult to the rule of law and there should be a top to bottom reshuffle of BuCor and NBP officials.