The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) said on Friday, Nov. 10, it will hire 1,000 more corrections officers (COs) in 2024 to augment its personnel in its prison facilities nationwide.
This year BuCor had hired 1,500 COs, 502 of them just graduated from a six-month training, while 528 others just started their training last Tuesday, Nov. 7.
BuCor Director General Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. said the continuous hiring of COs would comply with the mandate of Republic Act No. 10575, the BuCor Modernization Act of 2013.
Catapang said the bureau has been implementing reforms. "We have to adopt and redefine ourselves to make us relevant otherwise we will be left behind,” he said.
He noted that RA 10575 mandates BuCor to turn its personnel into a uniformed organization.
With the implementation of the law, the appointment of 804 personnel were invalidated due to lack of requirements.
“To help them fulfill the requirements in order to keep their jobs, Director General Catapang ordered his Directorate for Personnel to line up trainings and seminars for them to attend to while those in the service for a long time were ordered to attend values formation program, lectures and seminars on prison leadership and management,” BuCor said.
It also said that Catapang "has ordered the establishment of a Comprehensive Administrative Disciplinary Machinery for erring personnel who committed breaches of discipline especially those related to graft and corruption.”