DOJ orders probe into series of attacks vs BuCor personnel

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra. TOTO LOZANO / PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has ordered an investigation on the series of attacks against officers and personnel of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

“Let us see if there is a pattern,” Guevarra told reporters Wednesday, adding that those responsible must be identified and prosecuted.

Guevarra issued the statement following the ambush of Chief Inspector Angelito Padilla who was shot in the head in a daring ambush last Monday afternoon near a public market in Muntinlupa City.

Padilla died at around 8 that evening while undergoing treatment at the Medical Center Muntinlupa.

He is the second BuCor personnel killed this year. Last September 2, Insp. Romel Reyes, 41, assigned at the Bureau of Reservation Security Service (BRSS), was shot dead by unidentified gunmen aboard a motorcycle near the Sunken Garden of New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Brgy. Poblacion.

BuCor is an attached agency of the Department of Justice (DOJ). It has been the center of controversy following the filing of drug cases against Senator Leila de Lima. Inmates from the New Bilibid Prison testified against the former justice secretary senator on how she benefited from the drug transactions inside the national penitentiary.

De Lima denied the allegations saying it is a political harassment being the strongest critic of the Duterte administration. /je