Senate questions P39 food budget for inmates

MANILA, Philippines —  The food budget for inmates was questioned at the Senate as the investigation on the “Good Conduct Time Allowance” law continued on Thursday.

Angelina Bautista, a caterer for the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong revealed that it once won a public bidding to supply for CIW inmates at P39 for three meals per inmate daily.

However, Senator Panfilo Lacson pointed out that in the 2019 national budget, inmates have a subsistence allowance of P70 each.

“Bakit niyo papakainin ang mga preso ng P39 per three meals when ang budget ng gobyerno ay P60 in 2018 and nag-increase ito ng P70 in 2019. Saan napupunta ‘yung balance? [Why would you feed inmates P39 for three meals when the government has given a budget of P60 in 2018 and P70 in 2019. Where did the balance go?]” Lacson asked.

Bautista revealed that her catering contract with the CIW was P21 million for six months in 2018.

She also claimed she had to pay P50,000 to the legal division chief of the Bureau of Corrections, Fredric Santos, P50,000 to have the public bidding documents notarized.

“‘Yung pag nonotaryo ni Attorney Santos ng contract namin na P50,000 pero tinatawaran ko po ng P30,000,” she said.  [Attorney Santos asked for P50,000 to have the contract notarized but we haggled for P30,000]

Santos however claimed that he did not force caterers to have him notarize their documents.

“Hindi ko pinipilit ipa-notaryo sa ‘kin [I don’t force them to have the documents notarized by me],” he said.

However, Bautista claimed that Santos was a member of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC), which Santos also denied. /muf