Senate cites for ‘humanitarian’ contempt 2 BuCor officials

MANILA, Philippines — Two Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officials were cited for “humanitarian” contempt during the Senate investigation on Thursday on the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) law.

Senator Richard Gordon, who chairs the Senate committee on justice and human rights and blue ribbon committee, held BuCor Corrections Senior Insp. Mabel Bansil and Officer 3 Veronica Buño in contempt “as a favor” as their lives may be in danger.

Bansil and Buño believed that their lives were in danger after divulging alleged irregularities in the implementation of the GCTA law.

“I will put you in contempt now because I cannot bring you back in jail in Muntinlupa after nang sinabi nyo rito (after what you said here). Delikado na kayo (You are in danger). Ico-contempt ko kayo as a favor pero icocontempt ko rin na sinungaling kayo (I will put you in contempt as a favor but I will also put you in contempt because you are lying),” Gordon said during the hearing.

“I will call it humanitarian contempt. We’ll put you in contempt, we’ll put you here. At least safe kayo rito (At least you’re safe here),” he added./ac