Senators question Faeldon motive

Some P1 billion allocated for the improvement of at least four regional correctional facilities were not released after former Bureau of Corrections chief Nicanor Faeldon tried to realign the funds to his home province, Senate Finance Committee chairman Sonny Angara said Wednesday.

READ: Senate wringer awaits Faeldon

The fund was originally earmarked for the prisons in Palawan, Davao, Leyte, and Zamboanga, but Faeldon wrote to the committee to “transfer” the money to Sablayan, Mindoro, Angara said.

“He even wrote the committee asking for the realignment. We told him it was improper to do that,” Angara said when asked about the delayed disbursement during the Justice department’s budget deliberation in the Senate.

“That’s the reason why the P1 billion was not released right away.”

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Wednesday questioned Faeldon’s motive for requesting to realign P1 billion for the regional correctional facilities in his home province of Mindoro, where he had previously intended to run for public office. 

“There is nothing illegal there in his request for realignment. But at that time, before the last elections, we heard that he was interested in running for an election post in Mindoro,” Drilon said.

While the request was not illegal, Drilon said,  it was considered “improper” and “suspect.”

Faeldon, who was born in Batanes, has been residing in Mindoro, the home province of his wife. President Rodrigo Duterte earlier said the sacked BuCor chief wanted to run for Mindoro governor in the 2019 elections.

Faeldon, a former Marine captain who once led uprisings against government, was earlier linked to corruption during his time as Bureau of Customs chief but denied the allegations.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon slammed Faeldon for his “terrible” attempt to maneuver the budget.

“That is terrible... Mr. Faeldon has absolutely no business asking for a realignment. A bureau director has no business asking the realignment of a program,” he said.

Drilon asked Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to “officially withdraw” Faeldon’s letter to Congress as the request was “totally improper.”

The improvement of regional prisons could have been the “starting point” of decongestion at the crowded national penitentiary, Drilon said.

The occupancy rate in the prison facilities in the country has reached 612 percent, the Commission on Audit noted in its 2017 report.

Duterte sacked Faeldon in September after the former soldier approved the release of several prisoners convicted of heinous crimes.

Prior to his BuCor appointment, Faeldon headed the Bureau of Customs. Under his watch, about P6.4 billion worth of shabu slipped past the agency, triggering a Senate investigation. 

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