BuCor Director Gerald Quitaleg Bantag. Photo from DILG-PIO
MANILA, Philippines—Newly appointed Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Gen. Gerald Bantag’s threat to “butcher” those who will try to bribe him was just a “political statement,” Malacañang said Tuesday.
“Pareho ni Presidente [Just like the remarks of President Rodrigo Duterte], it’s a political statement. It’s a warning to all that he’s not the kind of man who will accept bribes,” Duterte’s spokesman and legal counsel Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
Bantag, whom Duterte appointed as BuCor chief in the wake of controversies on the release of heinous crimes convicts based on the good conduct time allowance (GCTA) policy, issued the warning in a meeting with key personnel of the agency.
“I said in that meeting that those who will give me money… I will butcher them,” Bantag said in Filipino during an interview over dzMM.
But he clarified that what he meant by “butchering” is that he will file administrative and criminal cases against those who will try to bribe him.
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Duterte appointed Bantag as BuCor chief despite the 2016 explosion in Parañaque City Jail that left 10 inmates dead. He was charged with 10 counts of murder before the Parañaque City Regional Trial Court Branch 274 over the incident.
The President said he believes that Bantag was innocent.
“Well, I think the case is in court, he’s facing homicide charges. I don’t think that he did it. If he did, then maybe he will be convicted. But in the meantime, I want him [for the post],” the President, speaking partly in Filipino, said. /jpv
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