Bilibid inmates’ cries of harassment are music to Aguirre’s ears
JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Monday said he was happy to see the resistance of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) inmates against the members of the elite Special Action Force (SAF).
Last week, SAF took over guarding the national penitentiary to stop the illegal drug trade activities of convicted crime lords.
Following SAF’s takeover came reports of harassment.
“Many (inmates are complaining) because the SAF are very strict (in implementing rules). But that means that the SAF troopers are effective in doing their duty,” he stressed.
Aguirre said the inmates want to destroy the credibility of the SAF men by making up stories.
“They say the SAF are abusing their power already. There is a claim that some SAF men fired shots, hosed inmates – with one of them even punching an inmate who was just asking a question. These are not true,” Aguirre told reporters.
He added that the inmates felt threatened by SAF and resorted to “misinformation” campaign to make the elite police officers look bad.
“These are actually part of efforts to destroy the integrity of our SAF men. This is not how we know of them; these are well-disciplined police officers. That’s why I appeal to everyone to give the SAF our full trust and confidence,” Aguirre said.
The DOJ has administrative authority over the Bureau of Corrections that supervises the national penitentiary and six other prison facilities.
Visitation hours have been shortened inside the NBP.
“This means the illegal trade there is really affected. Those visitors are the ones usually bringing in contrabands,” Aguirre said.
Over the weekend, NBP chaplain Monsignor Roberto Olaguer revealed that some inmates have been complaining to him over alleged harassment by SAF guards. He cited an incident when an inmate greeted a SAF officer with “good evening, sir” and in response, he said, “binigwasan agad [siya ng guard] eh.”
He said there was another inmate who complained that a member of the SAF pulled his goatee./ac
