BuCor trust fund officer to cooperate in probe
The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer in charge of the trust fund for inmates at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) has reported back to the Mandaluyong City facility and promised to cooperate with the investigation into P6 million worth of missing funds.
In a statement on Sunday, BuCor confirmed that corrections officer 2 Bianca Ramos, the CIW trust fund officer, had reappeared after being absent without official leave since July 29.
“She explained that her earlier departure was not due to unwillingness to cooperate but stemmed from considerable emotional distress and concerns about her personal safety at the time, which hindered her ability to respond appropriately,” BuCor said.
It added that Ramos had expressed her willingness to fully cooperate with the investigation and provide any information or clarification that may be required.
BuCor Director Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang called the development “a significant step forward in the investigation surrounding the alleged trust fund anomalies at the CIW.”
Earlier, Catapang said the reported loss of P6 million from the trust fund, which contains money sent to CIW inmates by their families, could not have occurred overnight.
Last week, two CIW officials tasked with overseeing the funds were relieved of their posts: facility superintendent Corrections Senior Supt. Daisy Sevilla-Castillote and deputy superintendent for administration, Corrections Senior Supt. Marites Lebardo.
Anticorruption measure
Political prisoners’ support group Kapatid, however, said BuCor’s decision to relieve the two officials and launch an internal investigation does not free the agency from its financial responsibility to affected persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
“BuCor introduced and enforced this cashless scheme when BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. himself signed and approved on Dec. 11, 2023 a 15-year Memorandum of Agreement with service provider Rica Ana Trading,” Kapatid spokesperson Fides Lim said in a statement.
Catapang had said the cashless scheme would eliminate corruption after BuCor seized over P300,000 from prison guards who had allowed relatives of inmates to send money through their mobile wallets.
Under the new system, inmates were given a passbook, with the money sent by their families through a mobile wallet entered into a system similar to a deposit under their names.
Sevilla-Castillote, however, told the inmates on July 30 that of the P13 million in the trust fund, only P7 million could be accounted for.
“BuCor must pay back every single centavo that vanished under its watch and immediately release all blocked family remittances,” added Lim.
Kapatid also called on the Department of Justice (DOJ), which oversees BuCor, to take over the investigation and refer the case to the Commission on Audit for an independent special audit.
The group likewise urged BuCor and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology to scrap mandatory cashless trust-fund systems in prisons nationwide.
Institutional failure
“Such systems have proven to be an institutional failure that can facilitate further corruption while depriving PDLs of hard-earned income from making bags and siphoning away the meager funds their families send for basic food, hygiene, and medicine,” said Lim.
She also recalled that nearly 3,000 CIW inmates, or about 96 percent of the facility’s population, signed a collective petition on March 24, 2024, calling for the abolition of the cashless policy.
The petition was submitted to Sevilla-Castillote while Makabayan lawmakers raised the issue during BuCor’s budget hearing on Sept. 5, 2024.
Lim wondered why, despite a commitment from the DOJ to abolish the system, it remains in effect.
