Government corruption is not sparing persons deprived of liberty (PDL), it seems.
Rights group Karapatan said that up to ₱6 million of funds remitted by families of Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) PDL for personal use have gone missing.
A recent audit revealed that out of the total recorded remittances of ₱13 million, only ₱7 million could be accounted for by Bureau of Corrections (Bucor) personnel handling the “trust fund,” Karapatan said.
Monies sent by families are deposited in a “trust fund” handled by CIW personnel from which the PDLs can withdraw a minimal amount weekly.
Karapatan said that CIW Superintendent Daisy Castillote refuses to hold concerned personnel accountable, offering instead to have the missing amount replaced using funds earned from the PDLs’ telephone calls, which currently cost ₱3.00 every five minutes.
Castillote reportedly plans to raise the fee of each five-minute telephone call to ₱5.00 until the funds ‘lost’ are replenished.
“On top of this, the PDLs will no longer be receiving a share from the telephone call income that they could use to defray costs for their dormitories’ needs,” Karapatan in a statement said.
The prison manager’s so-called solution has angered the political prisoners and other PDLs who said that the prisoners should not be made to bear the burden of replacing the missing funds, Karapatan added.
“It is the liable Bucor employees who should be investigated, charged criminally and administratively and compelled to return the stolen money,” it said.
Karapatan said political prisoners demand accountability, the return of their funds, and the abolition of the “trust fund” system at the prison.
The PDL also called on the Commission on Human Rights, the Department of Justice and the House of Representatives to investigate the report.
The CIW as well as the BuCor have yet to reply to Kodao’s requests for reply. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
The post Millions in prisoner funds missing at women’s correctional appeared first on Kodao Productions.