Criminals rule

THE Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) now ap­pears to be the “new arrival” merchandise offered for sale at the Bureau of Corrections.

The continuing investigation by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee exposed the fact that practically all prohibited items and acts in our prisons, particularly at the National Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City, are for sale.

Illegal drugs, mobile phones, sex service, liquor, cigarettes, home appliances and even time to be spent in a hospital, are on top of the long list of items that one, particularly a convicted criminal, can pur­chase.

This is of course not the first time that this fact has been exposed. In the past, when said issue surfaced, the government acted in what ap­peared to be an intervention template – conduct of raids, conduct of investigations, as well as removal and reshuf­fling of personnel.

As these illegal activities are continuing to this day only means that either the government is not effective in its interventions or it is not serious in addressing the problem.

Is this problem caused by greed or incompetence of cor­rupt officials and employees of the Bureau of Corrections, or both?

Another probable cause of this problem is more dis­turbing – the fear of prison officials and employees for their life if they will not go along with the corruption system that is in place in our prisons.

In last Thursday’s hearing at the Senate, Senator Richard Gordon raised the point about the Bureau of Corrections medical director probably be­ing afraid for his life if he were to decline the offer of a high profile inmate for money in exchange for his issuance of a hospital pass.

The challenge of Senator Rogelio “Bato” Dela Rosa for prison officials to quit their jobs if they cannot help but succumb to such fear will only be taken by a prison official or employee who has strong moral character. A person with weak moral character will most likely use greed to camouflage fear. For this kind of person, choosing greed is the better option particularly in an environment where cor­ruption and illegal activities are the norm.

Our corrections system is clearly in a very sorry state, to say the least. In this sys­tem, the criminals and not the law enforcers rule.

Let us hope that our legisla­tors in the 18th Congress can craft a policy that will bring the rule back to law enforc­ers and that the Executive Department, particularly the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Corrections will have the resolve, com­petence, and personnel with strong moral character to effectively implement such policy.