New BuCor chief vows cleansing of Bilibid

Newly appointed Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Benjamin De Los Santos has taken the challenge of eradicating corruption, illegal drugs trade and other criminal activities inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP).

“I hope to clean it (NBP) up and if necessary, exert drastic measures,”  De Los Santos said.

READ: New BuCor chief told to rid prison facilities of drugs, corruption

De Los Santos, a retired police general who served at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and chief of the police’s counterintelligence unit, said “rest assured that we will not allow corruption among our ranks.”

He took his oath of office last Tuesday before Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II.

READ: DOJ chief bullish on new prisons chief

De Los Santos added that while cleansing the national penitentiary, he will pursue modernization of the prison facility.

He believes that NBP modernization program, which has been pending since 2013, could be a major solution to the decades-long problems of corruption and illegal activities inside the penitentiary.

By building a new facility in Fort Magsaysay in Laur, Nueva Ecija, the BuCor director general said the NBP administration could better facilitate and monitor over 23,000 inmates currently serving sentences.

He lamented that the current NBP facility was originally built to accommodate only 5,000 inmates, but the prison population has grown to 23,000.

With the modernization program comes better benefits for NBP jail guards and personnel, De Los Santos assured.

“We aim to upgrade salaries of prison guards and put up a correctional academy where training will focus on security, administrative and rehabilitation competence of NBP personnel,” he said. RAM