Bantag denies getting cash gift on taking over BuCor

MANILA, Philippines — Gerald Bantag denied on Monday receiving any financial gifts following his recent appointment as chief of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

In a meeting he had at BuCor, he warned key personnel that anyone who would try to give him money would face administrative charges, he said in an interview at AM radio station DZMM.

He said he used the word “kakatayin” — the Filipino word for “kill,” but which he used in the meeting to mean “to file administrative charges.”

The question about the financial gift came up because days earlier former BuCor officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos revealed that high-profile inmates traditionally gave newly-appointed BuCor officials a “pasalubong” — that is, a monetary gift.

Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, who also previously served as head of BuCor, had also denied receiving a financial gift following his appointment to the post.

Meanwhile, Bantag also revealed receiving information that someone, whom he did not identify, was asking the wife of a Chinese inmate P2 million so that her husband would not be included in a list of people who would be killed.

Bantag did not provide details.

Asked if he thought prisoners were afraid of him, Bantag said he had no idea.

“But maybe some people are scaring them so they could make money from them,” he said in Filipino.

Bantag took over the post previously held by Nicanor Faeldon, whom President Rodrigo Duterte dismissed amid controversies surrounding the implementation of the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law that allowed the release of over nearly 2,000 heinous crime convicts.