Trust Aquino on prisons chief case

MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday said she was convinced that President Benigno Aquino III would act correctly on the fate of his friend, Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Ernesto Diokno, and asked that his action not be preempted.

“I’m sure he will do the right thing at the proper time,” De Lima said in a text message, referring to calls for severe sanctions on Diokno in the wake of the arrest of former Batangas Governor Antonio Leviste, a homicide convict serving a 6-12-year sentence, for making an unauthorized trip out of the New Bilibid Prison.

She said she trusted the President to act on the report of the fact-finding committee she had formed to investigate Leviste’s “caper.”

“First things first. Let’s wait for the results of the fact-finding team,” De Lima said. “Let’s not preempt, second-guess or speculate on what the President will do relative to Director Diokno.”

A former police officer, Diokno is said to be close to Mr. Aquino.

The tough-talking justice secretary had earlier said that if she had her way, she would order Diokno’s immediate suspension because he had admitted knowing of Leviste’s purported unauthorized trips.

But while the BuCor is under the administrative supervision of the justice department, only the Office of the President has the authority to discipline Diokno because he is a presidential appointee, she had said.

“But I can recommend to the President what to do on the basis of the results of the fact-finding investigation,” De Lima said yesterday.

She added: “Ultimately, as the appointing [authority, the President has] disciplinary authority. But the President needs to await the results of the fact-finding panel and our recommendations.”

In the coming days

Malacañang said Mr. Aquino’s decision on Diokno’s fate  would be known shortly.

“We expect in the coming days the recommendation and the decision of President Aquino on the findings of the panel formed by Secretary De Lima,” Abigail Valte, Mr. Aquino’s deputy spokesperson, said over government radio dzRB.

“As Secretary De Lima said, there is a process that we have to undergo before a decision is made on the liability and culpability of Director Diokno regarding the incident of … Leviste leaving Bilibid without permission,” she said.

Valte did not indicate what the President would decide. “We can’t say at this point because the investigation has yet to be finished,” she said, also pointing out that De Lima would base her formal recommendation on the findings of the panel.

Observers have raised a similarity between the case at hand and the August 23 hostage crisis that resulted in the death of a number of Hong Kong tourists and embarrassed the Philippines before the world.

Mr. Aquino directed De Lima to chair an incident investigation and review committee to determine those responsible for the failure to rescue all the hostages.

But the committee’s findings were still subjected to a review by Malacañang, and some of the recommendations for sanctions were changed.

House inquiry set

At the House of Representatives, the committee on justice announced that it would investigate “motu proprio” (on its own) the alleged abuse of “living out” privileges by Leviste and other wealthy convicts at the NBP.

Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., the committee chair, said the hearing would start on May 25. Thus, the scheduled hearing and voting on the substance of the impeachment complaint against Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo for betrayal of public trust will be postponed to May 31.

Tupas told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he had decided to give priority to the investigation of Leviste’s unauthorized trips outside the NBP because he found the matter alarming.

“An inmate illegally going out of a detention facility on several occasions makes a mockery of our justice [system]. It is incumbent upon the committee to investigate this in order to establish command responsibility. I believe that BuCor Director Diokno should be made accountable,” the lawmaker said.

“The [Leviste] incident is central to the justice system and should not be tolerated. I heard [on TV] when [Diokno] said that he cannot guard all those 32,000 or so inmates. He should be fired,” Tupas said.

‘Fatal’ remarks

Bayan Muna Representative Neri Javier Colmenares agreed with Tupas that Diokno should be sacked, citing at least two statements to the media which he deemed “fatal.”

Colmenares said the first was Diokno’s admission that he knew of Leviste’s unauthorized trips and even cautioned the ex-governor on these, and the other was his remark that it was “just a small matter.”

Corruption

“Leviste is not the main issue here. The burden is on Diokno. He should be fired for saying those things. I think the issue here is not even command responsibility. There is no such thing as living out of the prison without permission. Definitely, there is corruption here,” the party-list lawmaker said.

Colmenares recalled that when he was imprisoned for subversion from 1979 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1986, inmates were allowed to leave prison only for medical examination. The case against him was later dismissed by the court, he said.

He said the planned legislative inquiry should focus on remedial legislation aimed at reviewing and reforming the penal framework on the Rules on the Treatment of Prisoners, which had not been updated since the 1960s.

Colmenares said the review should be based on the philosophy of rehabilitation.

“It should not be treated as punitive because to me, it’s a social thing. But definitely, we have to review this ‘living-out’ system because it seems only the rich can afford it. What about the poor [inmates]? We should regulate this practice,” he said. With a report from Cynthia D. Balana