IBP chief calls for transparency following reported deaths of high-profile inmates

Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Domingo Egon Cayosa on Tuesday called for transparency from prison authorities following the reported deaths of high-profile inmates due to COVID-19.

Cayosa said the data privacy law "should not be misused to blur the accountability of public officers, thwart the constitutional right to information on matters of public concern, or disregard the personal interest of the victims and all those who labored to hold the guilty liable."

"Transparency should instead be promoted to help heal and disinfect our seriously ailing prison system," he said in a statement.

Cayosa said the IBP supports a thorough investigation of the alleged deaths, among the "many reported anomalies" in Philippine prisons.

"We call for strict accountability beyond the investigations. Unless erring prison officers are promptly removed, prosecuted, and put in jail, the sorry state of our prisons will continue or will even get worse," he said.

He said it may be timely to check whether the country's prisons comply with the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has confirmed to the Department of Justice (DOJ), its parent agency, that high-profile inmate Jaybee Sebastian had been cremated after dying of COVID-19.

Sebastian, convicted of kidnapping for ransom, was set to testify in the drug case against Senator Leila de Lima.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the reported COVID-19-caused deaths of Sebastian and of eight other inmates who were convicted of crimes involving illegal drugs.

The DOJ said BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag welcomed an independent investigation into the matter.—AOL, GMA News