It's really hard not to be incensed, or even amused at the different statements coming from NBP officials nowadays, especially in the light of the recently exposed, utterly ridiculous luxurious conditions VIP prisoners were enjoying while incarcerated. Some have said they saw nothing wrong in allowing prisoners to be able to use electronic and communications equipment. Documents have surfaced where prison officials signed off on allowing obviously forbidden equipment into the prison. Having a lot to explain, this is the best they can come up with. I mean, this is supposed to be a prison, right? Certain luxuries and freedoms are no longer allowed, right? Life in prison is not supposed to be better than that of a free, law-abiding citizen, right? Or maybe I'm wrong, by NBP standards.
Then there is the "I didn't know" or "I was not aware" reasoning. Does that make the official ignorant of the goings-on in his own prison, or is that incompetence? Perhaps the more plausible, if not the actual reason would be that they did not run the prison at all. It was actually the VIP criminals all along. They were just there for show, of course with the blessing of the criminals of course. It is hard to imagine how a hot tub/Jacuzzi was smuggled into the prison without the knowledge of the chief. Or perhaps it is allowed in the NBP handbook.
Then of course, there are the guns, which no less than the President himself was alarmed. A Bushmaster rifle, Glocks, several hundred rounds of ammunition, all in a prison cell. I guess the prison officials did not know these either. I honestly believe that the Chief Executive should have an active hand in reforming, or better yet, replacing the NBP and all its personnel. It is obvious that the NBP, as a correctional institution, has failed. All officials and staff, including all jail guards must be relieved while the military takes over the prison. Whatever criminal activity should cease should these measures be taken. The nineteen VIPs have already been removed from the NBP, but this is not enough. Criminal syndicates operate in such a way that when one head is cut off, another springs into place, just like a hydra. The fact that there are rival gangs within the NBP even poses a greater danger now that the leaders are out.
I don't need to say that the nineteen VIP criminals should never be returned to the NBP, if it continues to operate. A revamp of its personnel, whether top-to-bottom or not, is useless. What is needed is a total replacement of the personnel, from top to bottom. What is needed is a hands-on leader, with the backing of the national government, because what criminals cannot buy, they threaten. All the more reason that the prisoners themselves be broken up and shipped to other prison systems, if only to break the syndicates.
Not enough to cut the head. You have to kill the organism.