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Is something funny going on at Bilibid?

Philippine Culture / by

Is there justice in the Philippines?

Maybe so.  But, perhaps justice is different for those with money, compared to those without.

Bilibid Prison is a national prison of the Philippines, located up in the Metro Manila region.  People who commit crimes all around the Philippines are often held at the Bilibid Prison.  In the past week or two, a lot of different news stories around coming out of Bilibid Prison, seemingly unrelated stories, yet they all point to the possibility that some funny business is going on at Bilibid.

Firstly, last week, as I recall, there was a story about a former Governor of Batangas, Antonio Leviste.  Leviste was convicted in 2009 of killing a long time aide.  Well, when the news came out last week, it was said that Leviste has been leaving the prison on his own accord, and going and doing various things outside of prison!

Apparently, he has been allowed to leave the prison many times to do anything from just strolling around to planting trees.  In fact, after the story broke, the Justice Department held a hearing to determine why Leviste was leaving the prison, basically of his own free will.  When one of the prison officials was asked why Leviste was allowed to leave the prison, he answered that Leviste was really very good at planting trees, so they would let him leave the prison to go plant trees.  Huh?  In fact, Leviste himself later said that he wants to plant lots and lots of trees to help alleviate global warming, and it is basically his mission in life.  Oh my… so they allow him to leave prison, even overnight, unguarded to plant trees?  Somehow, I find that to be a bit unbelievable.

Yesterday, another story came out regarding actions at Balibid, this time the article was about a missing inmate’s body being dug up at Bilibid.  Apparently, a prisoner, Brian Peña had been reported missing on Wednesday.  On Thursday, some 30 hours after the report, the prisoner’s body was found buried in a makeshift shanty on the Prison property.  How can prisoners kill another prisoner and bury him without being seen or detected?  It just seems impossible to me.  What the heck is going on at Bilibid Prison?  Is anybody minding the house?  It would seem not.

In a somewhat related story, while not at Bilibid, Andal Ampatuan Sr., the patriarch of the infamous Ampatuan family who is allegedly responsible for the Maguindanao Massacre in 2009, has been seen spending time outside his prison cell, which supposedly should not be allowed.  In fact, there are pictures in the hands of officials showing Andal Sr. using a cellphone, and even spending time with his wife.  Andal Sr. is being held at Camp Bagong Diwa, and there have been allegations for months now that the Ampatutans are being treated like royalty in prison and given special privileges which they are not supposed to receive.  Maguindanao Governor, Toto Mangadadatu, a relative of many of those who were massacred in 2009, has said that the treatment of the Ampatuan clan only shows that in the Philippines, “if you have money, there is no law.”

The trials of dozens, even hundreds of suspects in the Maguindanao Massacre have not even started.  When they have tried to even indict many of the alleged killers, they have used different types of stunts to disrupt the court proceedings.  Many of the relatives of the massacre victims are becoming impatient with the slowness of the justice system, and wondering if justice will ever be served to those responsible for the killings.

So, based on the ongoing situation at Bilibid, and also with the Ampatuans, you have to wonder what is going on with the Philippine justice system?  It seems like there is a lot of funny business, and not that much serious business.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. There its money, here its power and connections. I wonder how much for pinoy citizenship ? Then I can live there when I want without asking for a stamp to stay longer. Plus can own a house !! Powerball should be over 150 million and I’d be on the next plane

    • Hi Brian – why not see about getting a resident visa so that you can stay here hassle free? That way, even if you don’t win that Powerball, you can still follow your dream! 😉

  2. Good morning, Bob. We shouldn’t be surprised at the inequality of Philippine justice system, for it is one of the things that define the nation aside from corruption. Justice can definitely be bought in the Philippines. There was a 9-term mayor in one of the towns of Zambales who was convicted of ten counts of falsification, a conviction that was upheld by the Supreme Court, no less.. He went on the lam, never arrested, and yet managed to file a Certificate of Candidacy as the incumbent mayor in the last election in which he won while still in hiding! In my mind, the adjudication of the Ampatuan case in the victims’ favor is to expect too much. It would be like putting Fabian Ver, at the very least, behind bars for the murder of Ninoy Aquino.

    • Hi Ricardo – Regarding what you said about the Ampatuans… I certainly hope you are wrong. So far, though… justice seems to be very elusive.

      • I, too, hope that I’m wrong, Bob. But based on how justice is dispensed in many high-profile cases in the Philippines, it’s pretty hard to be optimistic.

        • Hi Ricardo – I think that if nothing was done to the Ampatuans there would be huge outrage here. We will have to wait and see how it develops.

          • Bob,

            Working in the Correction’s part of law enforcement, it is unbelieveable that would just let inmates basically do what they want, especially high profile maximum security ones. It sounds like they run the prison. I wonder if they have given them key’s to there cell’s. I heard they canned the warden for the Andal Sr. debacle. He should be behind bars too. I think the longer the trial is delayed the less chance for conviction, especially with witnesses disappearing and dying. Good post, have a nice day.

  4. A certain recently returned senator would likely be in jail in any other country. In the U.S. the act of fleeing to avoid prosecution is in itself a crime I think.

    • Hi Tony – I am not sure if the Senator you are referring to would be in jail or not in the USA. Basically, now, there is no case against him. If it happened like that in the States, I don’t think he would be arrested, but I am not certain on that. It was certainly interesting that they could not track him down, don’t you think? 😆

  5. I would not be surprised if similar things happen in some of the USA Federal Prisons here which are more like a ” Country Club ” than a jail.

    • Hi Bob – Without a doubt you are right on that. However, people who commit mass murder, as Andal Ampatuan Sr. is accused of, they don’t end up in the Country Club prisons. That’s a big difference to me.

  6. Hi Bob;
    The United States has a separate prison system for the privileged and wealthy called Club Fed, Swimming pools tennis courts and minimum security. Hotel type rooms, and no bars on the windows. Plus cable TV. They were purpose built with the powerful in mind, you and I have to pay for our trips to resorts. I don’t see a big difference the way the powerful are treated here.

    • Ha ha… yep, talk about living a nice life on the tax payer’s dime! The difference I see, Paul, is that if a rich and powerful person killed 50 or 60 people and buried them with a bulldozer.. well, I think it is impossible that they would end up at Club Fed. That just would not happen.

      • The article I read about the former head of the IMF before checking in this website said:
        “Mr. Strauss-Kahn has been running up quite a tab, including $50,000 monthly rent for a town house, fancy steak dinners, plus the use of a gym, a terrace and a private movie theater,”
        This guy is only charged with rape and assault, if he was charged with mass murder, he
        might have to settle for a $25,000 townhouse.

        There looks to be not a whole lot of difference between justice systems.

        • The difference is… DSK is out on bail…. I don’t agree with him being out on bail. Leviste was convicted of murder, he is coming and going on his own free will, after being convicted.

          • Bob,

            Another funny thing about Leviste’s case at one time I heard in the news that he was convicted of homicide and not murder. Which is which?

            • I know that they classify homicide different than murder here, Jonathan… I just don’t really know what the difference is, I haven’t checked into it.

              • Came across this definition: Homicide and murder are both one human killing another. The difference is intent. If you accidentally killed a pedestrian with your car, that would be homicide, but it wouldn’t be murder. Murder refers to intentionally killing someone.

    • Bob, Paul, Jonathan, Rob

      Andal Sr. should be in a Super Max prison where is locked up in isolation for 23 hours a day. Onlylet out 1 hour a day for recreation, but with cuff’s and shackles on and given only 3 showers a week. Thats what our inmates get in our County Jail when placed in lockdown for disciplinary reasons, and most of them have not committed murder. You also wonder what kind of contraband is being smuggled into those prisons.

      • I totally agree with you Papa Duck. Our prison and justice system really have to be revised, For eons it has been constantly suspected of favoring the rich now it’s proven to be true after all!

  7. Hi Bob
    I don’t even know why they still have the prison there, since Metro Manila is growing so much they should sell the whole area. I think it is over 500 hectares, my wife grew up in the reservation area. She was thinking about buying a home from the convicted rapist the representative from Dapitan in the village next to it. The Prison also borders Ayala Alabang. They should take some of the money from the sale of the land and build a prison in a distant province, and the motivation of the wealthy to leave the prison won’t be as high (unless to escape).
    On a side note when Leviste was charged with the murder of his longtime aide, he had bail of course. He went to Malacanang to introduce the Palestinian ambassador to President GMA. I don’t know why they would allow into the Palace after being charged with murder, I sure hope the guards checked him for firearms.

    • Neil, Bob

      There’s a penal colony (it’s on an island) in Palawan but I don’t know what convicted crimes the inmates should have to be sentenced and jailed there.

  8. Sad to say, nothing will change until the citizens of the Philippines rise up, and demand equal justice, and punishment for evil men. That will not happen when said citizens continue to accept money at the polls to vote for those corrupt politicians.
    Dapitan is 5 minutes away from us, and I was horrified to see all the ” Welcome Home, We Love You” banners when the rapist congressman was released. Now his latest gimmick is to hold “men only” events at his supposedly family orientated complex. Kind of like throwing gas on a burning nipa hut. That family continues to pour public money into their resort and holdings, new street lights, concrete 4 lane highway to Dakak, etc, while claiming there is not enough money for street lights and garbage pickup in the rest of Dapitan. No Doubt they will be re-elected again, as they pass out the 50 peso bills to the voyors at election time. Yes, they are disgusting crooks, but the people have only themselves to blame for selling their votes for a few pesos.

  9. This is nothing new – 20 or so years ago a congressman was sentenced to 6 years for gun smuggling – a week later 2 colleagues of mine saw him having a swim in the Mandarin Hotel. At that time it was common knowledge that the chief warder of Paranaque jail was hiring out prisoners for robberies and hit jobs – it was forever thus. Joking apart,this is just another symptom of the total breakdown of the justice system – does anyone think that the Ampatuans will ever be convicted of any crime?The country is going rapidly from corrupt to totally corrupt – nobody wants to stop it because it appears that if they did they would not get a chance to profit from it. The really sickening aspect of all this is the constant profession of religious faith and the Christian beliefs in the country while at the same time allowing corruption to get beyond control. The Philippines claims to be a Christian country – it is nothing of the kind,it is a land that has completely lost its moral compass.

    • The whole point about being a Roman Catholic is that you can confess your sin/crime, say a few Hail Mary’s and go out and do it again. You have been forgiven – you don’t need a judge and jury (well, here it is a judge) and a friendly neighborhood priest.

  10. Hi bob i think you will find that this sort of behavour is found in all countrys ,perhaps not as much or to the extent that is in the phills but as we all know coruptiopn is everywhere there ,if you have the money you can buy anything .One night i was at jacks ridge and there was a guy who obviously had some coin or contacts he behaved like an absolute a,,,,,,,,,,hole towards the staff carrying on like a pork chop at one stage i asked the barstaff why they put up with it and why managment didnt ask him to leave ,simple they needed there jobs,maybe its the same in the prisons the crims have the money and contacts to make things happen so those with the most get the perks its wrong but with the mentality of some people what can you do ,it starts at the top and works its way down and in the end the whole tree is piosoned ,it is a brave politition in any country that will opose corruption especially in the phillipines where you can get done over for saying the wrong thing to someone ,will it change hate to say bob i dont think so ,is anyone minding the store yep the crims .
    chris

    • Hi chris – I agree that things like this happen all over the world. I also think that it is more rampant here in the Philippines than in most places.

  11. Shocking that the moral compass of hundreds of elected representatives could collectively be so off coarse. Sadly the RP is not alone in this !

  12. Bob just a response to some of the comments about the American Prison System. It is true that we have different levels of prisons for different levels of crime. The person that murders,rapes, etc is getting a whole lot different treatment than the accountant that shifted some numbers around and stole money. They both are incarcerated which as you know means that their individual freedom is restricted. In a lot of U.S. States we have the death penalty and it is used on a regular basis once all the appeals are worked through. There are a few very rich and powerful people living on death row in the U.S… Federal prisons are not all country clubs just think Ft. Leavenworth which I see often as I live an hour away. No country club there believe me. As stated the level of crime dictates the level of prison along with the behavior of the individual. You don’t need to look too far back into recent events to find a very powerful man arrested and held at Riker’s Island until he was allowed to post a 1 million dollar cash bond and be placed under supervised arrrest. (Head of the IMF) To compare justice here vs there is not reality in my opinion. There are injustices for sure and I would assume there is corruption but our murderers are not out planting trees. Good article and thank you for keeping us posted on the news of the massacre. That situation bothers me tremendously. Ron

    • Hi Ron – Just to be clear… I was not really comparing the justice here compared to there… that came in the comments. I was just writing about the justice that has been evident here, and lamenting it.

      • Maybe that prison in Manila is practicing for when the Philippines gets the equivalent of the European Union’s Human Rights Law. In the UK prisoners, including horrible thugs, are going to court claiming that their human rights have been violated. They now have flat-screen TVs and a choice of food at meal times. They have even tried to get the vote – something that was banned hundreds of years ago.

  13. Some times you have to admire Phil justice. Last time we visited there was a bank robbery that ended with the employees being executed gangland style. (you long term expats might remember) the public uproar was huge. Comments like the Phil is turning into Chicago or New York. Long Story short….the police caught up with them like a week later. The Head Lines read. “MURDERERS SHOT WHILE TRYING TO ESCAPE”. The picture showed a dead guy sitting in a car that was parked between two other cars, door open, one foot on the ground with more holes in him than swiss cheese. Sometimes the justice there puts the states to shame lolol.

  14. Scott,
    How do you know that it was the guilty parties that were shot? You probably do not remember when the head of the American chamber of Commerce was kidnapped .He was later freed after gun battles at 4 locations,5 people shot dead then 2 weeks later the female head of the Anti Kidnap squad who did the killings was arrested for organising the kidnap. Have you never heard of the bank robbery where all the robbers were shot dead but no money recovered? Murder and brutality are no substitute for a judicial system that works. Remember it was the police that shot Ninoy Aquino and the fall guy Galman – be a little sceptical when it comes to police statements.

    • Very True Bryan, but sometimes we cant let facts get in the way of a good story 🙂

  15. Hi Bob – Money talk here! I guess that’s why we also don’t have a jury system in the country.

  16. “The really sickening aspect of all this is the constant profession of religious faith and the Christian beliefs in the country while at the same time allowing corruption to get beyond control.” – Bryan G

    Exactly the message conveyed by director Francis Ford Coppola in the movie, “The Godfather”. In a scene at Church during the baptism of Michael Corleone’s sister’s son in which he was the godfather, Michael Corleone is seen standing beside the priest who was administering the baptismal rites in Latin. With organ music playing in the background, the movie scenes switched back and forth between the solemnity of a religious Catholic rite and the un-Christian-like killings of Michael Corleone’s enemies at exactly the same moment he was standing in a house of God. I thought that this remarkable juxtaposition of good and evil was a very powerful statement that underscores the hypocrisy of Catholicism.

    • That sums it up exactly Ricardo – I have spent the greater part of my life travelling the world and have found that the more religious a country proclaims itself the more corruption and dishonesty you will find – it is not unique to Catholicism,I do not know of an Islamic country that would bear much scrutiny. As far as the Philippines is concerned it grieves me to see the descent into greater corruption – the country needs so much to make life better for its citizens and with a little more probity it could be done but alas I really can see no near term prospects.
      Recent cases that have been exposed do not appear to have generated any action – why are politicians in charge of this? In any other country as these are criminal offences the police would be investigating and prosecuting.

      • Bryan G.

        Police should be investigating, attorney general should do the prosecuting all of the cases, not some corrupt politician.

        • Papa Duck, the problem I see with the police investigating is that there is usually a politician behind the stage pulling the strings.

  17. Hi Bob, Here is something that fits a little into this article…Take a read when you have time…

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110527/tc_yblog_technews/prison-computer-error-lets-450-violent-felons-walk-free;_ylt=AlCB1oImU6JAHHFq53clwdZH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTRqb2JnMmllBGFzc2V0A3libG9nX3RlY2huZXdzLzIwMTEwNTI3L3ByaXNvbi1jb21wdXRlci1lcnJvci1sZXRzLTQ1MC12aW9sZW50LWZlbG9ucy13YWxrLWZyZWUEY2NvZGUDcHphZ3Y4BGNwb3MDNwRwb3MDNwRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3ByaXNvbmNvbXB1dA–

  18. Hi Bob,

    The building looks nice. That would look good as a school or a museum. It doesn’t seem to serve the purpose. A columnist suggested setting a constructing the prison in the Spratlys. Or I thought of the El Fraile island in Manila Bay. The one that the US military turned into a garrison, completely encased in concrete.

    Alex

    • Maybe so, Alex.. seems they aren’t using it for a real prison, why not a school? I was thinking of putting the prison in Sulu.. the prisoners would be afraid to escape!

  19. Bob, It was not your article that compared as it was comments by other readers. My first sentence says in response to comments. I personally thank you for writing this article as I have been curious about some of these court cases and you have brought me up to date on what is happening. Along this same topic I don’t know if you have read in the news that California is going to have to release something like 36,000 prisoners due to over crowding in its state prisons. Now there is something to think about. I read a lot of opinions that prisons are not necessary and others that say prisons are too lenient, etc… One thing about the Chinese they seem to have this issue well taken care of. Ron

    • Ca is just not releasing prisoners, they are also terminating hundreds of prison supervisors and mid-level employees, etc. (today’s Sacramento Bee).

      A better excuse by the prison officials for Leviste going out of prison could have been “we are ready to implement dancing like the Cebu inmates and he didn’t like it”. ha ha.

  21. Hi Bob: Perhaps the temperature of the perpetrators blood at time of the dastardly deed is the influencing factor between murder and homicide. Premeditated vs crime of passion, or heat of the moment malarky, lawyers have a field day tap dancing around these issues, which still leaves the victim or victims stone cold DEAD in the market.
    Ciao.