PRISON SCANDAL | Ombudsman sacks 3 BuCor officials over GCTA

January 29, 2020 , 12:01 PM

JANUARY 29, 2020 – The government’s anti-corruption agency removed three peninteniary officials involved in the anomalous release of prisoners on good conduct scheme, a controversy exposed in a Senate inquiry last year.

The Office of the Ombudsman, in a 16-page partial decision on Wednesday, said the three officials from the Bureau of Corrections(BuCor) were freeing “persons deprived of liberty” (PDLs) in exchange for cash. Some of the prisoners, convicted of heinous crimes, are not eligible under the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) program.

The Office of the Ombudsman has found Ramoncito Roque, head of BuCor’s documents division, guilty of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

Two other officials, Correctional Senior Inspector Maribel Bansil and Officer Veronica Buño, were also dismissed for the same offense.

They were also meted with heavy penalties such as forfeiture of their retirement benefits, cancellation of eligibility, bar from taking civil service examinations, and perpetual disqualification from hold public office.

The court rejected the defense of the three officials, describing them as “untenable and deserve scant consideration.”

It also gave weight to the statements of Yolanda Camilon, the wife of an inmate in the New Bilibid Prison who had testified before senators about the anomalies in the implementation of the good conduct time allowance (GCTA).

“Camilon’s credibility could not be doubted as record is bereft of any evidence to show her ill motive as to contrive false and serious accusations against them,” the Ombudsman said.

The court argued that her statements were corroborated by the National Bureau of Investigation’s digital forensic findings on the mobile phones of Camilon, Bansil and Buño about their communication.

“Her testimonies are credible as these are based on facts which she has personal knowledge.”

On September 2019, Camilon said she paid P50,000 to the officials who had promised to release her husband.

The promised date, however, was moved several times.

Camilon said she was first approached by Bansil who referred her husband’s case to Roque and Buño.

Roque then introduced Camilon to his division chief Ruperto Traya, Jr. for the processing of her husband’s papers. Traya was the 53-year-old BuCor official shot dead by motorcycle-riding men in Muntinlupa City on August 29.

Senators launched an investigation last year into the GCTA law following the reported early release of convicted rapist-murderer Antonio Sanchez last month.

Former Corrections chief Nicanor Faeldon admitted signing a memorandum for the processing of Sanchez’s release papers, but recalled it due to public criticism.

President Rodrigo Duterte fired Faeldon in response and demanded nearly 2,000 convicts released convicts to surrender for the recomputation of their good conduct time allowance. (Karen Macalalad/MM)

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