President Benigno Aquino III has authorized the release of the fact-finding report of the Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding the unauthorized trips of former Batangas governor Antonio Leviste outside the New Bilibid Prison.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the President would want the DOJ report to be released in public.
DOJ has set up a fact-finding committee to investigate the liability of the officials in the Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) in connection with Leviste’s caper last May 18.
The report has been submitted to President Aquino but he has yet to disclose the details of it, begging more time to review it.
Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, who supervised the panel’s inquiry, said at least 10 other BuCor officials would be slapped with administrative charges. No names, however, have been revealed at this moment.
Lacierda said the President would want to release the report to public as a start of implementing reforms in the country’s correctional system.
“The President himself has expressed concern about congestion in our prisons and drugs being introduced into the lives of inmates. These factors combine to promote corruption and disorder and saps, in turn, discipline and justice as rules may be unclear or arbitrarily applied to inmates,” he said.
“Our correctional system cannot function if it is inhumane, if it is underfunded, and if its rules aren't further codified and applied in a fair and strict manner,” he added.
“We would like to see more of a focus on education and rehabilitation, in partnership with individual citizens and organizations who have quietly, and without fanfare, engaged in education and training efforts for inmates, rather than the spectacular cases of favoritism and exemptions from the rules that have shocked the public,” he further said.
The controversial “prison break” of Leviste has led to the resignation of Bucor director Ernesto Diokno.
President Aquino himself confirmed Diokno’s “irrevocable resignation” but noted that he might give his longtime friend a chance to serve again his administration but in a different capacity. (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)