Davao Penal Colony employee shot to death

An accountant from the Davao Penal Colony (Dapecol) was shot to death by motorcycle-riding gunmen Sunday while on his way to a family outing.

Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director Benjamin Delos Santos identified the victim as James Taping Davide.

Davide, who has been in service for 25 years and is retiring in two years, was killed around 9:30 in the morning Sunday while on his way to attend a family outing in Mabini, Compostela Valley and was pronounced dead on arrival at the Tagum Doctors Hospital.

Delos Santos said he has already ordered an investigation into Davide’s murder and sent BuCor’s Deputy Director for Operations Rene Orbe to provide assistance to the victim’s family even as he called on law enforcers to resolve the killing and arrest the gunmen.

“I call on my former comrades-in-arms in the law enforcement community to stop the senseless killings,” Delos Santos said.

Davide is the second official from Dapecol who was murdered this year.

Kabungsuan Makilala, a prison guard at Dapecol, was gunned down inside a passenger bus bound for Davao City on February 4.

In 2011, Makilala exposed alleged anomalies in the New Bilibid Prison where he was assigned before he was transferred to Dapecol.

Dapecol is currently in the news after Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez asked Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to cancel the Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) between Tagum Agricultural Development Company (Tadeco) and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) for being “grossly disadvantageous” to the government.

The JVA was initially approved in 1979 and was extended for another 25 years, which according to Alvarez was “contrary to law and public policy.”

Under the JVA between the BuCor and Tadeco, the company was allowed to extend the use of up to 5,308.36 hectares of the Dapecol for 25 years as a banana plantation during which the BuCor will receive profit shares of around P26.5 million every year.

Aguirre said he will issue a legal opinion on the JVA soon. JE/rga