IN THIS era of information technology, did you know that there are still several agencies of our government that are not fully computerized?
One of these is under the Department of Justice. The Bureau of Corrections has been under fire for alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law.
Would corruption be minimized, if not eliminated, in an automated system? An applicable system could have avoided the “doctoring” of prisoners’ years spent in jail and other pertinent information. In the course of the said Senate hearing, there was a suggestion directed at justice secretary Menardo Guevara for an automated template to be done on a monthly basis that will give information about the prisoners to be released.
Accuracy is not guaranteed in manual tabulation. In an overcrowded jail, there is more need to computerize the office of the Bureau of Corrections. With the current jail situation, a person with malicious imagination would suspect that a quick solution to decongest is through extra-judicial killing. The former director, Nicanor Faeldon, revealed during the Senate hearing that release of prisoners through GCTA law is one way of decongesting our jails.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration needs to re-examine its priorities when it comes to budget spending. Senate president Vicente Sotto III has been calling for more jail houses. He also called for the regionalization of establishing jails to accommodate those detained for life sentences. This will, therefore, allow relatives of prisoners to visit their incarcerated loved ones. A psychologist pointed out that visitation has some bearing in the overall attitude of the inmate.
Guevara, who attended the Senate hearing which was investigating alleged malfeasance in the implementation of GCTA law, admitted that his department was unable to computerize jail management and operations due to budgetary constraint.
In a business bulletin published by the Philippines Information Agency, finance secretary Carlos Dominguez III revealed that the department’s anti-red tape group, headed by Undersecretary Gil Beltran, has teamed up with trade regulatory agencies on fine-tuning the use of online platforms to streamline business processes down to the level of the local government units.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs are in the process of computerization to reduce the procedural requirements in serving government documents or applications.