Gordon wants updates on 16 unsolved BuCor staff killings

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Richard Gordon reprimanded the Department of Justice and Philippine National Police on being slow at investigating the deaths of Bureau of Corrections officials in the past years.

At the resumption of the probe into the Good Conduct and Time Allowance law, the Senate blue ribbon committee—officially the Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations—looked into the death of BuCor legal chief Fredric Santos.

Gordon said that Santos is the 16th Corrections bureau staff killed since 2011 and that all those cases remain unsolved.

“There is a culture of incompetence, inefficiency, lack of passion, lack of attentiveness, lack of sense of urgency,” Gordon said.

The senator also said he is “stunned” that the Department of Justice seemed unaffected by the killings at their attached agency.

“Have some empathy for those who were killed. Don’t get used to it,” he added in a mix of English and Filipino.

“Open the files, in behalf of the families, in behalf of your service. You better put the word out that nobody is going to be killed anymore,” Gordon also said.

Sens. Panfilo Lacson and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, both former top cops, were also disappointed at the unresolved cases.

Dela Rosa was chief of the Corrections bureau before running for senator.

Gordon directed the resource persons, from the PNP, DOJ, BuCor and NBI to prepare a “summary on the killings” for the next Senate inquiry on March 10.

Gordon also said that the panel wants BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag to attend the next hearing. The senator warned that Bantag may be cited in contempt if he skips the hearing.

Santos was killed by unidentified shooters on February 19, as he was about to fetch his daughter from school in Muntinlupa.

He was one of the resource persons in the GCTA hearings and he was supposed to testify on corruptions inside the Corrections bureau.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra previously said that Santos’ murder is “very likely” linked to the GTCA.

In August last year, BuCor’s chief administrative officer Ruperto Traya Jr. was also shot in the head in Muntinlupa City. — Kristine Joy Patag