Officials and employees at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) make up a syndicate of relatives who cover up for one another.
The guards are related to one another either by blood or affinity—fathers, sons, uncles, nephews, brothers-in-law, guards whose wives are sisters, guards whose sons and daughters married other guards’ children, cousins of cousins, godsons or hijados, godfathers or ninong, guards who allegedly have illicit relations with daughters of other NBP employees, etc.
Unless the syndicate is broken up—which is very difficult given the fact that it has been there since time immemorial—irregularities at the NBP will continue to be a family affair.
The syndicate will continue to run circles around the directors and deputy directors of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), who are presidential appointees, because they are outsiders.
That’s why wealthy prisoners are given VIP treatment. Convicted drug lords reportedly run their drug syndicates outside through remote control; drugs, alcohol and guns are smuggled in. And prostitutes can come in and out of the NBP compound with the “gods” at the BuCor “ignorant” of what’s going on.
All the BuCor directors and assistant directors start out as bosses who strictly enforce prison regulations, but later either join the syndicate or become the laughingstock inside and outside the prison facility.
If the authorities are bent on breaking up the syndicate, an insider or former employee should be appointed BuCor director.
I may sound like a broken record by consistently endorsing Juanito Leopando, a retired prisons superintendent, but he may yet cause the breaking up of the syndicate within the NBP.
Leopando might have been a part of that syndicate because he, too, has a brother within the bureau.
But an insider like Leopando may be likened to a whistle-blower who spills the beans on his former coconspirators.
Without the whistle-blowers, do you think the government would have found out about the P10-billion pork barrel scam?
If Leopando is appointed head of BuCor, other irregularities at the NBP might be uncovered.
* * *
If I were BuCor Director Franklin Bucayu, I would have resigned after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima led the raid on the NBP compound, which is his little kingdom.
Why did it have to take De Lima to expose the luxurious living of convicted drug lords at the NBP?
De Lima said it was Bucayu who tipped her off about the royal treatment being given to the convicted drug lords, hence the raid.
But why didn’t Bucayu conduct the raid himself?
If his problem is that he didn’t have the cooperation of the NBP guards, Bucayu could have asked the Philippine National Police to help him enter the lions’ den since he is a retired police general.
Bucayu’s behavior—hiding behind De Lima—is unbecoming of a retired police general and a graduate of the Philippine Military Academy.
* * *
Sen. Tito Sotto’s recommendation that the death penalty be revived for convicted drug lords should merit thorough consideration.
The drug lords at the NBP continued to wreak havoc on people’s lives by running their respective drug syndicates outside through their cellular phones and the Internet.
They would still be doing so if De Lima didn’t conduct that controversial raid at the NBP maximum security compound.
Their conviction by the courts did not stop the proliferation of drugs in the country.
But their executions, if the death penalty is brought back, would have rendered leaderless the various drug syndicates, which, eventually, would have broken up.