BJMP orders lifestyle checks on jail guards

MANILA, Philippines - Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) director Rosendo Dial ordered yesterday a lifestyle check on jail personnel after a guard reportedly helped three Chinese inmates, detained on drug-related charges, escape from the Parañaque City Jail Saturday in exchange for a large amount of money.

Jail Officer 1 Richard Sillatoc remains at large after he was documented by the jail’s surveillance camera assisting Long Zong, Chan Tong Lou and Cheung Wai Leung through the main gate. 

“We are checking all the allegations and so far there were many indications Sillatoc has many mistresses and goes to casinos,” Dial said in a radio interview, noting that Sillatoc was allegedly in dire need of money to maintain his mistresses and finance his gambling.

Chief Inspector Xavier Solda of the BJMP’s public information office said Sillatoc is married and has been with the BJMP since 2003. Dial said Sillatoc’s superior apparently overlooked his mandate to monitor the lifestyle of his subordinates.

Dial said the food Sillatoc reportedly fed his fellow guards has been sent to the National Bureau of Investigation for analysis. “The result will be known in two weeks. We doubt the allegation” that Sillatoc fed them food that made them vomit, he said.

Dial said he met with BJMP officials yesterday to review the bureau’s policy as part of efforts to prevent similar incidents from happening.

Some jail officials admitted that their jail guards are vulnerable to bribery from moneyed inmates and there is really a need for the bureau to come up with measures to protect them from temptation.

In December 2010, Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said that former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr., one of the principal suspects in the Maguindanao massacre, tried to bribe a jail officer just before the first anniversary of the Nov. 23, 2009 massacre.

The jail officer reported to his superiors that Ampatuan offered him P10 million as initial payment and P40 million after they successfully escape. The jail officer then requested a transfer of assignment. Ampatuan denied the allegation.