House Speaker. Alan Peter Cayetano (Photo from an RTVM video)
MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Alan Cayetano on Wednesday supported the dismissal of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Nicanor Faeldon, while other House members wanted Faeldon charged for allowing the release of heinous crime convicts.
“I sincerely believe that the President is 100 percent against corruption. He has zero-tolerance. Unfortunately, some people allow to do it, or some people allow those under them to do it,” Cayetano said in an interview hours after the President fired Faeldon.
READ: Duterte to Faeldon: You’re fired
READ: Faeldon: ‘I most humbly bow to my commander-in-chief’s order’
“We are already more than half of the term of our President. Almost every month, he still catches some problem anomaly, because it’s really endemic,” the Taguig-Pateros representative added, speaking partly in Filipino.
Cayetano, former Foreign Affairs secretary and the running mate in the 2016 elections of then-Mayor Duterte, also said he supported the President’s surrender order to released heinous crime convicts — “unless the Supreme Court orders otherwise.”
“We all know that when there’s grave abuse of discretion, it amounts to not having jurisdiction. On the other hand, if there’s jurisdiction, as far as the people released are concerned, because they’re not qualified under the law, the order to release them will be invalid,” Cayetano said.
“So I support President Duterte unless the Supreme Court orders otherwise — that those who committed heinous crimes would really have to pay society for them.”
READ: Duterte to freed heinous crime convicts: Surrender now
Meanwhile, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said in a statement that charges must be filed against Faeldon and the others who “made a mockery of our laws.”
“Mere damage control to insulate other officials or allies of the administration will only further unmask the duplicity of the anti-crime and anti-corruption campaigns of the administration,” Zarate added.
For her part, Deputy Minority Leader Janette Garin said the President did the right thing given Faeldon’s “obvious usurpation of power, lapses in judgment and questionable decisions.”
“My only hope is that Mr. Faeldon be held accountable for his misdeeds and that he does not get reappointed again in any position that will trump this administration’s efforts to combat corruption,” the Iloilo representative added.
Faeldon was criticized for signing a “memorandum of release” for rape-murder convict Antonio Sanchez, a former mayor of Calauan in Laguna, despite questions about his qualification for the good conduct time allowance (GCTA).
Republic Act No. 10592 provides guidelines for the GCTA, under which an inmate can deduct from his total sentence.
/atm