QUEZON CITY— Government jailers and firemen described as scalawags, corrupt, abusive and incompetent will definitely face criminal and administrative charges, a source from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) said.
Yesterday, concerned officers of the DILG, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) asked DILG Secretary Angelo Reyes to look into reports that many jail and fire officers and men, and even civilian employees are engaged or linked into widespread graft and corrupt practices.
The concerned jail and fire officers said "kotong" jailers and firemen have been in the service for many years now. Several men have been charged criminally and administratively, but a bigger percentage have been reinstated to service.
"Now that it is Secretary Reyes who is at the helm of DILG, we honestly believe these "kotong jail and fire officers will not anymore, get off the hook," they said.
They said that if Secretary Reyes gave his nod on disciplining and giving of proper punishment to erring members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) headed by PNP chief director-general Edgar Aglipay, then they said they are sure the good secretary would also give his go signal to pound on abusive and notorious members of BJMP and BFP.
"Sa totoo lang, maraming mas grabe ang abuso sa BJMP at BFP. Panahon na upang malaman ito ng mga kinauukulan, upang ang parusa at disiplina ay kaagad maipataw sa mga bugok na itlog," they pointed out.
Among the allegations against erring BJMP members are laxity in the implementation of Operation "Hound Dog", a strict body-searching of all visitors to the jails to prevent the spiriting of illegal or prohibited things such as illegal drugs, deadly weapons, grease money to jailers, and the like and the irregularities in the release and disbursement of government funds to various BJMP offices, units and activities.
At the BFP, the reported "ghost delivery" of firefighting equipment, fire protection facilities, firetrucks, firehoses, repair of firetrucks, construction and repair of fire stations and the bypassing of promotions of deserving fire officers topped the complaints.
BJMP chief Arturo Alit and BFP chief Francisco Senot vowed to act on the complaints against their personnel involved in "kotong."
