The Justice department said Thursday it continues to monitor any allegations of corrupt practices or abuse of authority at the Bureau of Corrections after the bureau’s personnel and officials exchanged allegations of wrongdoing.
BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag was earlier quoted as saying that “95 percent” of the agency’s 3,100 officials and employees were corrupt.
In an open letter, unidentified BuCor personnel appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to sack Bantag for alleged “graft and corrupt practices in the highest order” and abuse of authority.
“The DOJ will continue to monitor very closely both the BuCor’s rank and file [for any corrupt practices] and the management [for any abuse of authority] and take action as may be appropriate,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a text message.
He said Bantag’s statement on the bureau’s alleged corruption “does not constitute an actionable offense, much less under the anti-graft law.”
Nonetheless, Bantag’s remarks “may have offended the sensibilities of those employees who are honestly performing their jobs.”
Bantag took over BuCor after its former director general, Nicanor Faeldon, was fired by the President in September following a controversy arising from the questionable release of several heinous crime convicts.
Bantag was appointed BuCor chief despite homicide charges against him in connection with a 2016 jail blast that resulted in the death of 10 prisoners in Parañaque.