Facade of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) (File photo from the Bureau of Corrections website)
MANILA, Philippines — All 700 guards of the New Bilibid Prison’s (NBP) maximum security compound were sacked and replaced on Wednesday as Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. started the internal cleansing among its personnel as part of his reform agenda for the bureau long besieged by controversies.
Catapang also relieved Corrections Chief Insp. Lucio Guevarra, the superintendent of the NBP maximum security compound, and replaced him with Corrections Senior Insp. Purificacion Hari, the first woman to head the compound in recent history.
Hari will oversee more than 18,200 inmates, mostly convicted of heinous crimes including murder, kidnapping and drug trading, in the BuCor’s most secure facility located in Muntinlupa City.
According to Catapang, he had long sought to replace the guards at NBP’s maximum security compound, noting that some of them committed “outright” violations of BuCor rules and regulations.
Some were caught tampering with the CCTV cameras to avoid being observed by their superiors. Others were also reported to have hid the money they received as bribes in their locker rooms.
There were also BuCor personnel who committed dishonesty in their attendance, asking someone to sign on their behalf, while some “30 or 50” personnel were found lounging in the agro-industrial park in NBP’s minimum security compound.
“I ask for your cooperation because I have to reform BuCor. [But] up to now, I am not seeing any improvement on the manner on how you handle [NBP] maximum security compound. I still receive information of misdemeanors [among you],” he told BuCor personnel in a speech.
Catapang was named to head the BuCor in October last year after its former chief, Gerald Bantag, was suspended. His appointment as BuCor director general was only made permanent by President Marcos on March 23.
The 700 BuCor guards will be replaced by 300 new corrections officers and 35 more senior officers from the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan province.
The 35 BuCor officers from Iwahig would guide the rookie guards, with Catapang vouching for them as “tried and tested” and “having no bad records.”According to Catapang, the 335 BuCor officers will be enough to maintain peace and order at NBP’s maximum security, with some of them equipped with body cameras.
The relieved prison guards will undergo a monthlong refresher training starting next week under prison expert and US criminology professor Raymund Narag.
They will then be transferred to other BuCor facilities, which are also lacking in manpower. As of the latest data, there are only 5,156 BuCor officers for the 50,686 inmates under BuCor’s care.
As part of his reforms, Catapang said he would ban lockers in stations, as well as pockets in uniforms to prevent BuCor personnel from receiving bribes.
Cell phones will also be banned permanently at NBP, with the new guards to communicate through official BuCor communication channels.
“We are on a reform mode and we are to reform our institution within five years. But there will be a lot of changes that will be happening here,” Catapang said.