The Commission on Audit (COA) will be asked to conduct a financial management and performance examination of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
BuCor Officer-in-Charge Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. on Monday, Nov. 21, said he wanted to tie up the COA audit “with the implementing rules and regulations of the Bureau of Corrections Modernization Law.”
Catapang said he decided to seek COA’s help after discovering more alleged anomalies at BuCor. He did not elaborate.
He lamented that BuCor has yet to implement Republic Act No. 10575, the BuCor Act of 2013, whose implementing rules and regulations (IRR) have been prepared “but up to now there is no implementation.”
“So, I'd like to ask COA to help us implement the rules and regulations for the modernization of BuCor,” he said.
Also, Catapang, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, said he is conducting a performance assessment of prison guards.
“I want to see their credentials if they are really prepared to be guards or they are just, by rank, being appointed. They should know about jail management,” he said.
He said that when he assumed office, he has already removed from their respective positions BuCor officials who were brought in by suspended BuCor Director General Gerald Q. Bantag from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
“There are about 58 of them,” said Catapang. He said one of them is BuCor Deputy Director General Gabriel P. Chaclag, the bureau’s former spokesperson.
“I relieved him of his duties because I have to investigate him,” he said on Chaclag. Catapang, however, did not disclose what issues would be investigated as far as Chaclag is concerned.
Catapang said that some of those were promoted at least two ranks higher upon transferring to the BuCor in violation of existing laws.
“They were just captains and majors and when they came here they became generals,” he said.
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