Duterte exonerates fired prisons chief, as Senate hearing into release of drug offenders continues
- Despite firing prisons bureau chief Nicanor Faeldon last week, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he is an ‘upright man’
- Meanwhile a senate hearing has heard details of moneymaking scams involving prison officials, inmates and a senator
Duterte last week wielded the axe on the former rebel and marine officer who became a staunch ally, after four Chinese drug traffickers, 44 others convicted of drug-related crimes, and three rapist-murderers were released over the space of nine months.
But two days later Duterte took the sting out of the sacking, saying: “Faeldon, he’s a straight edge. I still believe in him”.
The president indicated he would appoint him to another post of his own choosing, although on Tuesday Duterte said he might no longer give Faeldon a new post because “a private corporation has already accepted him”.
Duterte had initially appointed him customs commissioner, then deputy for operations for disaster relief. Faeldon has left all his three senior government posts under a cloud.
A source said Faeldon still had to find a job, and contacts “assume” that Duterte’s claim about Faeldon being hired by a private company is “another tale of Duterte to parry questions about whether he would still reappoint him or not”.
Faeldon is personally close to Duterte. His son was baptised inside the presidential palace with Duterte named as the godfather.
The controversy has not turned Duterte against Faeldon, with the president announcing he would not go after prison officials who had erred “if it was done in good faith”.
The same source familiar with Faeldon gave this reason for Duterte’s continued support: “We believe that Faeldon knows some incriminating information regarding the involvement of the Duterte family” in illegal activities.
Faeldon has been given ample time to explain in four separate hearings why he did not commit a crime by releasing the prisoners.
He had used the 2013 “Good Conduct Time Allowance Law” which greatly reduced the jail terms of well-behaved inmates, even though this law specifically barred its use for convicts who committed heinous crimes.
Faeldon also told senators last week that he simply did not know of the existence of a Department of Justice memorandum requiring him to seek prior permission before releasing anyone convicted of heinous crimes.
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Midway through grilling Faeldon on Thursday, however, the senators presented two surprise witnesses and proceeded to ask both about moneymaking scams involving prison officials, inmates and Senator Leila De Lima, who was once a justice secretary.
She is now detained and facing trial for allegedly receiving payoffs from convicted drug lords who were illicitly trading banned drugs from inside prison.
The surprise witnesses were Rafael Ragos, a former acting prisons bureau chief, and Jovencio Ablen Jnr, a former agent of the National Bureau of Intelligence. Both are key witnesses in the illegal drug trading case against De Lima.
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They both regaled the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee with a long list of scams such as prison officials being given a cut to convert an entire building into a 24-hour gambling joint; inmates paying jail officials 30,000 pesos (US$576) to smuggle in women for sex; and policemen conspiring with inmates to kidnap girlfriends of imprisoned Chinese drug traffickers, who were then forced to pay a ransom of 200,000 pesos (US$3,800) per victim.
Senator Panfilo Lacson then steered the line of questioning into a much bigger alleged scam by asking Ragos how he had acted as a bagman to then-justice secretary De Lima.
Ragos, then acting prisons chief, gave a confusing narrative of how he once delivered a bag containing 5 million pesos (US$96,000) in cash to her house.
Responding to questions from Lacson, Ragos claimed he had found the bag of money on his bed inside the director’s quarters and was told by another inmate that it came from Peter Co, a Chinese national doing time for drug trafficking.
He did not personally hand the bag to De Lima but gave it to her driver Ronnie Dayan, telling him it was from Peter Co “for her [senatorial] campaign”. Ragos added that he personally saw Dayan give De Lima the bag.
The detained opposition senator, who once investigated Duterte for extrajudicial killings, had not been invited to attend the probe to face her accusers.
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She issued a scathing statement on Thursday, saying: “I vehemently deny and deplore the accusations of certain fellow senators, like Senators [Richard] Gordon and [Francis] Tolentino, and even Senator Lacson.”
De Lima criticised Lacson for asking both Ragos and Ablen “leading questions”, insisting both men had given “perjured testimonies against me” during a 2016 probe in the House Justice Committee. “They were lying then. They continue to do so, under the direction of Duterte and his operators,” she said.
She later addressed fellow senators on Twitter by saying: “I guess parliamentary courtesy … even basic human decency is out the window in the halls of the Senate.”
Blue Ribbon Committee chair Senator Gordon has yet to announce when the senate hearing will resume and whether De Lima will be invited.
