Might as well shut it down!

We never run out of things to comment on. Some are just downright unbelievable, they border on the absurd. Of course I’m talking about the disappearance-abduction-escape-rescue-ransom whatever of convicted murderer Rolito Go. This guy went missing last Tuesday night from his hut at the minimum security compound area. Also missing was his nephew, who also serves as his nurse attending to his needs. The Go family cried that he was kidnapped, and a ransom of one million pesos was demanded. How on earth do you abduct a high-profile prisoner from a state penitentiary? 

I mean, what would it take to pull off an operation like that? Definitely you would need the blessing of so many officials within the prison itself, unless the whole New Bilibid Prisons is so inept that anyone could just walk in and out of the place. Which is what Tony Leviste was doing, by the way. Bribe a few guys here and there and voila, you’re a temporarily free man! So Rolito Go may very well have been abducted, it just remains unclear by whom. Maybe by himself.

Why is the Bureau of Corrections only admitting now that kidnappings do occur and have occurred inside the NBP? Is it because they did not want any outside agency to start snooping around, lest they find the real people behind the abductions? It so happens that this time, it was Rolito Go involved, who just cannot go unnoticed from the media. I really find that suspect and warrants further investigation, on top of all other investigations going on at the NBP. It only shows how decrepit and utterly useless this prison is in keeping its inmates from society. How it has failed to make criminals pay for their crimes, since they are able to get out anyway. I’ve heard that most guns-for-hire come from the NBP. The killers are allowed to do their nefarious deeds and then come back. Which is why the police, if they aren’t behind the crimes themselves, find it hard to track down the killers. Why look into a prison in the first place?

Whether Rolito Go escaped, which I honestly believe is the case, or was abducted for ransom, the NBP needs a total, complete overhaul. In fact, it would probably be better if it were just shut down, and a new prison be built in some desolate place, far from the Metro, where an escape would be worse than just staying inside its four walls. Having a penitentiary smack in the middle of the metropolis has shown to have its unique problems for society. Justice is not truly served, with these prisoners being able to roam the city with clockwork impunity. It is just too much for the families of the victims of the criminals. They have lost loved ones, and now their killers roam scot-free? Please.

A society succeeds when justice is always available for those who deserve it, and where the guilty are punished to the full extent of the law. If the guilty, the extremely guilty are allowed to enjoy freedom in any capacity, then the justice system has failed. I cannot fathom how incensed the families of the victims must feel upon learning that the killers of their loved ones enjoy some amount of freedom. It is just wrong. Whatever findings the investigations come up with, I hope they shape up the place, or else, just shut it down!