Former Bureau of Corrections Director General Nicanor Faeldon. INQUIRER.NET PHOTO/CATHY MIRANDA
Nicanor Faeldon didn’t wait for the sun to rise before he and his family left the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) premises just hours after he was sacked by President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday night.
Faeldon, his wife, Jelina Magsuci, and their children—a 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son—left the director’s general quarters at New Bilibid Prison—the official residence of the sitting BuCor chief—around 1 a.m. on Thursday, according to his lawyer Jose Diño.
Photos posted by his legal team showed Faeldon’s belongings packed in paper bags, backpacks, boxes and suitcases before he left the BuCor compound where the family had lived since November last year.
Faeldon also had a simple “thanksgiving” gathering at the Office of the Director General around midnight on Wednesday.
Diño said Faeldon’s final words to his staff were: “[Do] not cry, do not be sad, we were gifted with an opportunity to serve our country. We should thank the Lord and PRRD [President Rodrigo R. Duterte] for that gift.”
Senate hearing
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has yet to name an officer in charge of BuCor, pending the appointment of a new director general by the President.
Now “homeless,” the former BuCor chief and his family were set to return to his wife’s hometown in Mindoro province, Diño said in a text message.
Faeldon, however, surfaced on the third day of the Senate hearing on the controversial good conduct time allowance (GCTA) law, with Diño saying that his client “insisted” on attending.
Mr. Duterte fired Faeldon on Wednesday for disobeying his order not to release convicts. Faeldon admitted signing a memorandum last month to release rape-murder convict and former Calauan, Laguna, Mayor Antonio Sanchez, but claimed he recalled it following public backlash.
Close to 2,000 inmates convicted of heinous crimes were released from 2014 to 2019. Of these, 816 prisoners were released this year by the BuCor under Faeldon’s term.
In a statement he issued shortly after his sacking, Faeldon said: “My Commander in Chief/appointing authority has spoken. I am a Marine and a Marine does as he is told. I most humbly bow to my Commander in Chief’s order without any hard feelings.”
‘Dangerous wildfire’
Asked what he thought about the President’s firing of Faeldon, Guevarra on Thursday said “terminating DG [Director General] Faeldon is an initial step to prevent the spread of dangerous wildfire.”
The justice secretary said he would leave it to the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate Faeldon’s actions on the release of the prisoners.
Guevarra said he would ask the National Bureau of Investigation, with the assistance from the police and the military, to locate the 1,914 prisoners who were released through the good conduct law and were ordered by President Duterte to surrender on Wednesday.