(Eagle News)–Senator Leila de Lima on Monday, Sept. 16, called for “sweeping reforms” in the country’s prison system amid the mess at the Bureau of Corrections.
In filing SB No. 181, De Lima sought to integrate the management of the Bureau of Corrections, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and of provincial jail services under one agency, the National Commission on Corrections and Jail Management.
She said the agency shall “serve as central authority to implement the unified correctional system.”
She said it shall “plan and carry out integrated services and programs related to its custodial and reformatory mandates,” and shall be tasked with the professionalization of all correctional personnel.
In filing SB No. 180, on the other hand, De Lima sought to institutionalize prison reform and restorative justice in the country’s correctional system to “ensure the effective rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates while according full respect of their rights.”
“We should initiate sweeping changes not only in BuCor but within the entire prison system to make it more effective in eradicating corruption and addressing the pressing problems in our country’s penitentiary,” she said.
It was De Lima, then the Justice secretary, who, along with then-Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, crafted the implementing rules and regulations of the Good Conduct Time Allowance law that reduces the sentence of inmates for good conduct.
The Palace, however, has blamed the IRR for the release of convicts of heinous crimes under the law, noting that the IRR, unlike the law itself, did not explicitly exclude that category of inmates from availing of the legislation.
The Ombudsman has asked De Lima and Roxas to explain the IRR, as it conducts a probe into the GCTA law mess.
During a Senate hearing the problems in BuCor, former officer-in-charge Rafael Ragos also said De Lima had benefited from corruption in BuCor, adding that he himself delivered P5 million twice to the house of De Lima, who was running for senator at that time, for her campaign kitty.
De Lima has slammed the Palace for what she said was its attempt to make her a scapegoat in the GCTA law mess, noting that the BuCor officials who signed release orders of the convicts of heinous crimes were to blame.
De Lima said the IRR of the GCTA law should also work within the framework of the law.
As for Ragos’ allegations, De Lima also denied these.
