Senate inquiry on alleged VIP treatment for prisoners sought

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Teofisto Guingona III have filed a resolution seeking to direct the Senate blue ribbon committee to investigate the alleged VIP treatment being given to some privileged inmates in state prisons nationwide. Senate Resolution No. 497 seeks to investigate reports that officials of the Bureau of Corrections, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and New Bilibid Prison grant several inmates and criminals special living arrangements and privileges and even facilitate their escape in exchange for bribe money. "The recent issues and scandals of graft and corruption haunting the Philippine prison system is an insult to the rule of law and should cause alarm not only to the executive department but other constituent units of the state as well," Lacson and Guingona said in the resolution filed May 30. The senators filed the resolution following the controversial unauthorized "vacation" of former Batangas governor Antonio Leviste, who was convicted of homicide in 2009 for the killing of his friend Rafael delas Alas two years earlier. Leviste was charged with evasion of service of sentence after he was arrested for leaving the NBP compound without the necessary pass. BuCor chief Ernesto Diokno told a Department of Justice fact-finding panel that he should not be blamed for the incident because he is only concerned with policy-making matters. However, he went on leave before the start of the investigation and later on quit his post. Aside from Leviste, Maguindanao massacre case prime suspect Andal Ampatuan Sr. was also reportedly being allowed to stay outside his detention cell. - Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News