PRESIDENT Rodrigo R. Duterte dismissed his prison chief late yesterday and ordered an investigation of Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officials over the illegal release of convicts for good conduct.

The president said BuCor Director-General Nicanor E. Faeldon had violated his order not to release criminals convicted of heinous crimes. He said prison officials must report to him and Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra pending their probe by the Ombudsman for corruption.

Mr. Duterte said the more or less 1,900 felons who got released for good conduct should surrender, otherwise he would order their capture “dead or alive.”

Asked if former BuCor chief and now Senator Ronald dela Rosa will also be investigated, the president said: “I am sure he is ready to submit himself.”

Mr.  Duterte defended his spokesman Salvador S.  Panelo for referring the request for  executive clemency of the family of former Calauan Mayor Antonio L. Sancez, a convicted rapist and murderer, to the nation’s parole board.

He said Mr. Panelo’s action on the ex-politician’s application was just a referral and not a recommendation.

Also yesterday, Mr. Panelo said he met twice with the family of Mr. Sanchez, for whom he had lawyered, to discuss his request for executive clemency.

Mr. Panelo, who is also the president’s chief lawyer, told CNN Philippines that Mr. Sanchez’s family had visited him at the presidential palace two times early this year. He denied any wrongdoing.

“What to me is inappropriate is if I advised the president as chief presidential legal counsel to grant clemency,” Mr. Panelo said. “I just referred the matter to the appropriate agency and that’s for them to do whatever they want.”

At Tuesday’s Senate hearing, Reynaldo G. Bayang, who heads the Board of Pardons and Parole, told senators that Mr. Panelo had written a letter dated Feb. 26 referring the plea of Mr. Sanchez’s daughter to free her father.

Mr. Panelo, who lawyered for Mr. Sanchez in his rape-slay case for which he was sentenced to seven life terms in 1995, said he had never recommended his release.

He said a simple referral was “totally different from a recommendation or an endorsement.”

The parole board rejected Mr. Sanchez’s plea, Mr. Bayang earlier told senators.

Mr. Sanchez’s early release was canceled after a public uproar. About 2,000 inmates convicted of heinous crimes have been released since the start of the decade even if they were not supposed to be covered by the law, according to prison data.

Three senators have filed a bill seeking to repeal the law allowing the early release of a convict for good conduct.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III and Senators Richard J. Gordon and Panfilo M. Lacson said the law might be prejudicial to the victims and their relatives who had sought justice. — Arjay L. Balinbin and Charmaine A. Tadalan

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