DOJ fails to find source of leaked Bureau of Corrections report

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has failed in its bid to pinpoint those responsible for leaking its report that recommended criminal and administrative charges against director Gaudencio Pangilinan and six other officials of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) over an allegedly anomalous renovation project at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.

DOJ Secretary Leila de Lima admitted that the fact-finding investigation conducted by a high-level committee last month proved futile in its purpose of identifying who should be accountable after the 99-page report submitted to President Aquino found its way to members of media.

“The panel can’t pinpoint who leaked. They were able to identify the gaps, deficiencies in the system of handling confidential reports but they weren’t able to find out who leaked it,” she told reporters in an ambush interview last Friday.

In the April 9 report, the DOJ body recommended that Pangilinan and other officials be held responsible for violating the government procurement and anti-graft laws for the P1.4 million renovation of the NBP administration building, which was done without a proper public bidding.

The body said Pangilinan and the BAC members skirted the rules on public bidding when he divided the renovation project into four contracts that fall below P500,000. Any deal above this figure requires public bidding.

Plugging loopholes

De Lima said the probe committee chaired by Undersecretary Leah Armamento already submitted its report, which included recommendations on how to plug the loopholes in the system.

A source told The STAR the panel initially looked at whistleblower Sandra Cam – a supporter of Kabungsuan Makilala, a former prison guard assigned at the NBP who filed the complaint against Pangilinan – as a possible source of the leak.

During marathon hearings last May, Muntinlupa City Prosecutor Edward Togonon, State Prosecutor Berlin Berba and National Bureau of Investigation anti-graft chief Rachel Angeles – members of the BuCor probe panel – denied leaking the report.

Armamento’s panel also questioned journalists who reported on the leaked document as well as a woman janitor in charge of the office where the BuCor probe panel kept the report.

The investigating team also inspected the two press offices in the DOJ.