President Duterte Names Ex-Warden Bantag As New BuCor Chief
GERALD BANTAG – Former Manila City Jail warden Gerald Bantag has been appointed by President Duterte as the new Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief.
Bantag will take over the position of Nicanor Faeldon, who was fired by Duterte in August. Duterte stated that Faeldon had to go for disobeying his orders.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo stated that Duterte’s decision was based on the professional competency shown by Bantag. He also added that his honesty was a major factor.
Prior to his appointment, Bantag was Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). He had also served as warden of 5 city jails including:
- Parañaque
- Manila
- Malabon
- Navotas
- Valenzuela
However, Bantag also had his fair share of cases against him. But according to Inquirer, these cases were unclear as of Tuesday night.
Back in 2007, Bantag was faced with charges for attempted murder. He had allegedly tried to kill a teenager.
At the time, Bantag was warden of the Navotas City Jail. He then denied the charges and was ready to present his service firearm for ballistic tests.
During the investigation, Bantag was also said that he was willing to go through a polygraph test. After this, he was faced with other charges as well.
Back in October 2014, he faced charges in the Malabon City prosecutors office because he allegedly did not pay for a restaurant bill. Adding to the charges were claims that he also illegally fired his gun.
Adding to this, In October 2017, the Parañaque City court had warrants for the arrest of Bantag and two officials of the city jail. This was for murder regarding a grenade explosion in his office.
The blast had killed 10 inmates. This included two Chinese Nationals back in August 11 2016.
In lieu of this, Duterte said to reporters that the Parañaque Jail blast had been dropped from murder to homicide. However, the case still had no resolution.
The President then stated that since there is still no conviction, according to the law, he is still innocent. He then added that this was why he gave him a new job.
Duterte also said that he wanted a saint, but there’s no one like that. He then got a guy from the military, but still no progress.
With this, the President then said that he would try someone with experience with managing a prison facility. Duterte then stated his directive to Bantag was to rid corruption in BuCor.
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