MANILA, Philippines – The reputation of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) to properly and rightfully grant good conduct time allowances to prisoners again suffered a blow as an ill-prepared list of the bureau wrongly included Janet Lim Napoles as one of the grantees.

A list provided by the BuCor to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee showed a total of 2,359 names of prisoners released because of Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA).

Under a list of 1,714 names of released “in the present administration,” Napoles’ name appeared as one of them, even wrongly attributing the crime of rape to her.

Napoles was convicted of plunder in the Bong Revilla pork barrel scam case just last December 2018. There is no way she would qualify for early release now based on GCTA.

Napoles is currently detained at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong. Justice Undersecretary Markk Perete also confirmed that she is still detained in the CIW in a text message to reporters on Thursday, September 12.

“We have asked BuCor for an explanation on this,” Perete said.

Ill-prepared list

BuCor’s documentation chief Ramoncito “Chito” Roque told the blue ribbon committee also on Thursday that they rushed the compilation of the list.

“Mabilisan pong pinagawa sa ‘min, mag-pe-press con kasi sa Palawan during that time, hindi po namin na-check nang mabuti,” Roque told Senator Richard Gordon.

(We had to rush it because we were going to have a press conference in Palawan during that time, we weren’t able to check it properly.)

Livid, Gordon castigated Roque for doing a lousy job.

“May listahan kayo, dapat inaalagaan n’yo listahan n’yo. Lalo lumalaki ang sunog, lalo nawawala ang tiwala ng tao sa gobyerno, dahil balasubas pagkakagawa n’yo,” Gordon said.

(You have a list, you should taken care of that list. Now the fire is bigger, the people are all the more distrustful of this government because of your lousy work.)

Gordon said that 10% of the list submitted to them was wrong, having double entries of names. Inmates whose sentences were either commuted, or who were released by the Supreme Court like Rolito Go, were still included.

“Ngayon hinahabol ng pulis ang mga ‘yan pinababalik kasi nasa listahan n’yo, o tingnan n’yo nangyayari, natataranta mga pulis, nahihirapan,” Gordon said.

(Now the police are hunting them to send them back to jail because they are in your list, look at what’s happening now, even the police are confused and are having a hard time.)

Roque is himself under fire after being accused of facilitating extortion by an inmate for his early release.

Referring to Roque, Gordon said: “Ito ay isang tao na siguro hindi naman kagalingan pero kunwari masipag, nabigyan ng trabaho pero ang daming palpak.“

(This is a person who is maybe not that good but pretends to be hardworking, so he was given a job, but has committed so many mistakes.)

‘Heads will roll’

Malacañang on Thursday said it will await the results of the investigation into the flawed list that included Napoles.

“Let the investigation proceed and let the truth come out and thereafter, heads will roll,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a news briefing.

Napoles was first detained in 2013 at Fort Sto Domingo in Laguna when she was on trial for serious illegal detention for allegedly holding Benhur Luy hostage, who was then poised to become a whistle-blower in the pork scam case.

In 2015, Napoles was sentenced to up to 30 years by the Makati Regional Trial Court (RTC) for the serious illegal detention case. She was transferred to the CIW.

In 2017, the Court of Appeals (CA) acquitted her of serious illegal detention so she was transferred to the Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig as she had to be detained for the non-bailable cases of plunder she was facing before the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.

By new year 2019, Napoles was moved back to CIW after she was sentenced to reclusion perpetua for the Bong Revilla plunder case.

Even if her credit for preventive imprisonment (CPI) on the serious illegal detention is counted, there was now way she could be released on GCTA now.

Napoles’ lawyer Stephen David said the alleged pork barrel scam queen did not apply for any type of early release. David said it was “most likely” just a mistake of BuCor. – Rappler.com