Prison guards

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) says 15 of its personnel were involved in smuggling contraband into the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP).

Talaga bang ngayon lang ninyo nalaman (Did you really only find out about it now)?

Ang tatanga naman ninyo (You’re all so stupid)!

Former inmates and retired BuCor personnel told me that the smuggling of liquor, drugs, cigarettes, cellphones, firearms, bladed weapons and, yes, even prostitutes into the NBP takes place under the very noses of all the guards.

In fact, smuggling or selling contraband to inmates is a brisk business among the guards.

Big houses, expensive cars and large bank accounts are testaments to the corruption among the NBP guards.

If the slipping in of contraband into the national penitentiary were to be stopped, all the NBP guards would have to be either retired or assigned to other prison colonies in the country.

As I’ve said in previous columns, the syndicate composed of blood relatives among the guards should be disbanded. Guards cover up for the shenanigans of fellow guards due to blood loyalty.

BuCor directors under whose watch the nefarious activities at the NBP and other prison colonies happen should be immediately replaced. Criminal charges against them should be filed, too.

There’s no way the BuCor director is unaware of what’s happening inside the NBP.

Except for a very few after the late Vicente Vinarao, directors have enriched themselves one after the other through bribes from prisoners.

After the troubled tenure of relieved BuCor chief Gerald Bantag, prison directors should be of sound mind. In short, they should not be psychotic.

*      *      *

Thanks to Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the special audit report on the government’s allegedly graft-laden pandemic supply deals with Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp. may be released in January, although much belatedly.

Pharmally, which had a capital of P625,000, was able to clinch a deal to supply the government with face masks, face shields and personal protective equipment (PPE) worth several billions of pesos.

The Senate Blue Ribbon committee of the last Congress has concluded the probe on the highly scandalous pricing of pandemic supply.

What’s lacking is the special audit report from the Commission on Audit.

“Why does it always keep getting delayed,” said Senate Minority Leader Hontiveros, referring to the audit report.

Sen. Sonny Angara defended COA Chairman Gamaliel Cordoba, saying he had just “warmed his seat.”

Angara said that the COA was in the final stages of the audit report “and we can expect the report in around two months.”

Hontiveros is right: What’s causing the delay in the submission of the audit report on the Pharmally deal? Unless it’s being “doctored,” the COA report should have come out several months ago.

All of this brings us to one unsavory character: Michael Yang, a Chinese national. Where is he?

From what I’ve gathered, Yang clinched the deal for Pharmally by acting as its financier and loan guarantor.

Yang, who sported an image of himself as a presidential economic adviser during the previous administration, started out in Davao City as a vendor selling wares from China.

Yang, who hardly speaks English and Filipino, ingratiated himself with then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

When Digong became president, Yang became an influence peddler in Duterte’s government.

Another character who used his influence in the previous administration was Dennis Uy, a young man from Tagum, Davao del Norte, who became a tycoon by buying up companies here and there.

Towards the end of Digong’s term, Uy started selling most of the assets he had acquired to pay off loans from his acquisitions.

The young businessman, although he made honest and aboveboard deals, apparently over-extended himself.

*      *      *

The Office of the Ombudsman made a rash judgment in suspending National Irrigation Administration (NIA) administrator Benny Antiporda, based on complaints from subordinates he was trying to discipline.

Antiporda described the complaints as “petty,” saying they were offshoots of his anti-corruption drive in the agency.

Why should Ombudsman Samuel Martires suspend Antiporda based on mere complaints from the NIA rank and file that Antiporda berated them?

The NIA employees and managers are crybabies. Previous NIA administrators have probably spoiled them.

Why, oh why, should Martires listen to NIA employees who are acting like spoiled brats?

Martires would have been on the right track had he suspended Antiporda because some NIA female employees complained of sexual harassment.

The suspended NIA chief was within his rights to berate erring subordinates and forbid their travels at government expense.

Wasn’t Antiporda trying to save the government money by prohibiting managers from going on junkets?

*      *      *

Many employees at the National Press Club, where Antiporda was voted president several times, will tell you that he is a father figure.

He may have a temper, which is typical of journalists who are under pressure due to deadlines, but he is fair.

Antiporda is a former newsman. He owns the tabloid Remate.

Many of Antiporda’s former colleagues think that his suspension was too harsh.

*      *      *

Fishpond operators, feed manufacturers and commercial fishers are grateful to President Bongbong Marcos, concurrent agriculture secretary, for lifting the ban on the importation of processed animal protein (PAP).

PAP is used in feeding fish grown in fishponds and other aquaculture facilities.

The importation of PAP assures the country of food security.