Bantag charged entrance fee for Bilibid visitors – Catapang

MANILA, Philippines — Even relatives of inmates at the New Bilibid Prison were not spared from the corruption that pervaded at the NBP during the term of suspended Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag, according to BuCor officer-in-charge Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr.

Catapang said he learned that during Bantag’s time, relatives of prisoners who wanted to visit were required to pay P30 to P40 to jail guards before being allowed inside the national penitentiary.

“That’s how intense corruption was here. It went down to the lowest employee of BuCor,” Catapang yesterday said in mixed English and Filipino over ANC.

The retired military chief immediately put a stop to the illegal activity when he assumed leadership of the BuCor last October after President Marcos suspended Bantag over allegations that he was the brains behind the murder of radio broadcaster Percy Lapid and NBP inmate Cristito Villamor Palaña.

Catapang earlier said they are eyeing to file plunder cases against Bantag and other BuCor officials for the construction of four buildings worth P1 billion. The funds were 95 percent withdrawn but the buildings only 60 percent built.

Bantag is also under investigation for an excavation at the NBP grounds, which the Department of Environment and Natural Resources declared as a form of illegal quarrying.

Catapang said these were among the problems left behind by his predecessor, which he is resolving.

“I really want to close this chapter so that next year I can start the reforms I need to do,” he said.

Catapang criticized Bantag for running a criminal syndicate within the BuCor instead of reforming the country’s penal system.

“There was a cabal of people who came here and they made themselves a syndicate,” Catapang said.