About 30 BuCor personnel involved in ‘money-handling’ scheme — Catapang

About 30 wardens of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) are being investigated after they were found involved in the handling of money of the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), BuCor officer-in-charge Gregorio Catapang Jr. said Wednesday.

This came after Catapang bared Monday that BuCor confiscated over P300,000 in cash handed to jail guards and personnel for safekeeping by PDLs.

Interviewed on GMA News’ Unang Balita, Catapang said they are still determining where the PDLs were supposed to use this money for. The confiscated money was also put under custody, he said.

“I doubt kung gagamitin sa mabuting paraan ‘yan dahil sa isang araw naman, hindi na nga kailangan gumastos ng more than P2,000 isang PDL eh,” he said, pointing out that PDLs are only allowed to receive P2,000 per day.

(I doubt that it will be used in a good way because PDLs don’t need to spend more than P2,000 per day.)

With this, Catapang said that the BuCor will implement reforms with regards to the provision of money to the PDLs.

“Gagawan natin ng sistema na ‘yung magpapadala. ‘Yung tumatanggap ng padala, kailangan pupunta siya sa office, i-register niya ‘yung pera na pinadala, at siya mismo ang magaabot doonn sa PDL pero may magwi-witness. Ilalagay sa logbook, ivi-video lahat ng transaction para sa ganon, hindi na maulit ‘yan o maihinto na ‘yan,” he explained.

(We will create a system wherein the sender and recipient of the money must go to the office, register the money being sent, and give the money personally to the intended PDL. There will be a witness and the transactions will be put in a logbook and will be videoed so that the scheme will not happen again or it will be stopped.)

Another kind of illegal activity guards were running in jail was to take a 10%-12% cut from the money families electronically sent to the PDLs.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, in a separate ambush interview, said the cut guards took from money sent to PDLs could be as high as 20%. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News