BuCor chief: No intention to discredit SAF

The chief of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) clarified on Friday that he did not mean to discredit the Special Action Force, the commando unit of the Philippine National Police, a day after he disclosed the involvement of a SAF member in a theft inside New Bilibid Prison.

“I have the highest respect for the PNP-SAF because I used to be with the police,” said BuCor Director General Benjamin de los Santos, a retired police chief superintendent. “That’s why I ordered a quiet investigation.”

On Thursday, the BuCor filed a complaint in the Muntinlupa cityprosecutor’s office against SAF member Sgt. Roger Opong for stealing a TV set and P208,000 in cash from the NBP chapel on the night of March 29.

Opong allegedly made it appear that he was conducting a drug raid when he stole the items with the help of an inmate.

In an interview on Thursday, Delos Santos spoke about the case without naming Opong — referring to him only as “sergeant ” — and said the SAF member had already confessed to the theft.

That same day, PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa and PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Dionardo Carlos aired suspicions of a smear job against the SAF members who had been posted at Bilibid since July last year. Both sensed a deliberate attempt to discredit the PNP unit and have its men pulled out of the NBP because of their efforts to wipe out the drug trade in the national penitentiary.

On Friday, Delos Santos released a copy of the affidavit by Prison Guard 1 Peter Cyroe Tabajonda and inmate Rommel Laciste, which was filed in support of the complaint against Opong.

According to the affidavit, Opong conducted a search in the office of NBP chaplain Fr. Roberto Olaguer around midnight of March 29. He was then accompanied by Laciste, who Tabajonda said was also wearing a SAF uniform.

Opong was supposedly acting on a tip that there were two kilos of “shabu” being kept in the safety box at Olaguer’s office. The SAF sergeant and Laciste, however, did not recover drugs but instead found a box of peso bills and a plastic bag of coins — the chapel fund — totaling P208,000.

Laciste said Opong divided the money, putting some bills in his pockets and the coins in a trash can, and that they also took a 32-inch Sony Bravia TV that was mounted on a wall, covering it with a pillow case.

The BuCor chief said Opong confessed to Olaguer in May before he was sent to Bohol for another assignment. He said Opong “apologized because he could not return the money as it was already gone and he did not know who got the TV set.”

De los Santos stressed that he had already ordered an investigation into the incident even before Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre told the media on Monday about the resurging drug trade in Bilibid because of a possible connivance between some SAF members and convicted drug lords.

Aguirre ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the matter.

The BuCor chief said it turned out that “there were some SAF members who were already contaminated” even before he ordered the chapel theft probed.

Asked why the complaint against Opong was filed only on Thursday, or more than three months after the theft, Delos Santos said “I have been investigating and documenting it. Rumors will not suffice as basis.”