MANILA, Aug. 3 — Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday ordered the investigation and filing of charges against a jail guard at the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City, who was caught with methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.
In a report from Southern Police District (SPD) Director Chief Supt. Tomas Apolinario, Prison Guard 1 Ernesto Dionglay Jr., was caught possessing a big plastic sachet containing around 100 grams of white crystalline substance believed to be shabu by PNP-SAF personnel during a body search for employees at the gate of Maximum Security Compound on Thursday morning.
Diongalay is presently detained at Muntinlupa Police Station and will be charged with violation of Sec. 11 (Possession) of R.A. 9165, (The Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002).
Aguirre said that they will not tolerate these kinds of acts.
”DoJ will not tolerate these acts of our people. If a crime has been committed it will not go unpunished,” Aguirre said sought for a comment.
Earlier, the DOJ chief said erring employees of the department will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as he called on them to work with him in fulfilling the agency’s mandate.
“Deal with drugs and you will find neither refuge nor respite from the law. Please stop it, please stop it and if despite this warning you continue your corrupt ways, the full resources of the DOJ will be thrown against you,’ Aguirre said, adding that the present administration will “no longer tolerate criminals.”
He stressed that the Justice Department played a huge role in the administration’s war on illegal drugs, thus, prosecutors’ actions should be credible.
“The DOJ will play a great part in the President’s effort to have a crime-free Philippines but great powers come with great responsibility. We have to see to it that they believe in our prosecutors,’ Aguirre said.
Aguirre has taken upon himself the supervision and management of the BuCor.
In his Department Order No. 505 released last July 27, Aguirre said he “shall directly supervise the management and operations of the BuCor, which are not within the ministerial powers of its Officer-in-Charge.”
”The concerned officials and employees of BuCor are directed to submit and bring the undersigned’s attention all matters that are beyond the authority of the BuCor officer-in-charge,” read the directive.
BuCor is an attached agency of the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ chief made the decision following the irrevocable resignation of BuCor chief Benjamin Delos Santos last July 13 and the recent appointment of Rey Ragaas as officer-in-charge of the bureau that supervises the NBP and other penal colonies nationwide.
The order is effective immediately and remains in force until further orders or until a new BuCor director general has been appointed. (Christopher Lloyd T. Caliwan/Vanessa Panesa (OJT)/PNA)
