BUREAU of Corrections officer-in-charge Gregorio Catapang yesterday said he would not bring military men to help him run the controversy-plagued agency, adding he would not repeat the mistakes committed by his predecessors.
Catapang said he sees no need to bring military or ex-military officers to the bureau because here are many capable BuCor officials and personnel who can assist him in implementing reforms.
“Pag ginawa ko iyun parang inulit ko lang ang pagkakamali ng mga predecessors ko. I will do it on my own knowing BuCor still has a chance to change, to reform,” Catapang said in a television interview.
Catapang served as the 45th chief of staff of the Armed Forces from July 2014 to July 2015 under President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.
His immediate predecessor, Gerald Bantag, brought him to the BuCor from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology where he formerly served as regional director.
Bantag was placed under preventive suspension by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla to pave the way for an impartial probe on the death of a Bilibid inmate tagged as a middleman in the October 3 killing of veteran radio commentator Percival “Percy Lapid’ Mabasa.
When former PNP chief Ronald Dela Rosa was appointed to the top BuCor post in 2018, he brought with him a contingent of elite Special Action Force troopers to help secure the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.
Currently serving as BuCor Deputy Director-General for Security and Operations is Milfredo Melegrito, a retired Army general whose last military posting was as deputy commander of the AFP’s Northern Luzon Command before he was appointed to the bureau in 2019.
Catapang said he would use organic BuCor officials to carry out reforms in the bureau.
“I don’t need people from the military since BuCor is for BuCor. It is not just right to always bring people from the outside here,” he said, adding that organic BuCor people also understand the challenges and problems in prison facilities, including the national penitentiary.
Earlier, Remulla said BuCor prison facilities have a 330 percent congestion rate.
The NBP alone has over 28,000 inmates, including more than 17,000 in its maximum-security compound.
