REPUBLIC OF THE PHIIWJIEES)

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SWORN STATEMENT
I, P/DIR. FRANKLIN JESUS B. BUCAYU (RET.), Filipino, of legal
age, with postal address at Jade Street, Hiyas Subdivision, Parada,
Valenzuela City, under oath, hereby depose and state that--

1.
Pursuant to House Resolution Nos. 105 and 314, re: Inquiry' in
aid of Legislation, on the Prol1f'eration of Drug Syndicates at the National
Bilibid Prison, I have been invited to appear before the Honorable
Comrru'ttee on Justice of the House of Representatives. I was also requested
by the said committee to submit my sworn statement 1n" relation to the aforesaid m'quiry. Hence, the m'stant sworn statement.

2.
For the record, I hereby categorically deny the claim made
before this august chamber by Mr. Herbert Colanggo, a convicted
inm'ate of the National Bilibid Prison (NBP), that I supposedly
requested or received a monthly "assistance" or payola from him when
I served as the Director of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) from
March 2013 to June 2015.

3.
I likewise categorically deny the statements of other
mm'ates, that I purportedly called for a meeting through Col. Ellie and
demanded for a weekly For the Boys or payola. I never authorized
Col. Ellie or anybody else to conduct such a meeting nor to collect
money from any mm'ate. If such meetings took place or such collections
were made, I assure you that they were without my knowledge.
4.
I never accepted any amount, not even a single centavo,
from any mm'ate 1n' any prison facility durin'g my stint as BuCor
Dir'ector. As a matter of fact, records Will clearly show that I have
ms'tituted policies to prevent over-familiarity between my staff and the
inm'ates which often breeds corruption. Still, those found erring were
consequently removed from BuCor.
5.
For the record, I was the fourth BuCor Director under the
previous adnum"straon. I assumed office on March 2013; almost three
startled runru-ng. the department.
years after the pare-v1.2'ous

Upon assuming the said post, I was shocked, like you, to learn of the
great magnitude and multitude of the deep-rooted problems of our
prison facilities resulting from decades of Government neglectthe
most appalling of which is that the NBP is no longer a prison but has
turned into a fort seemingly controlled by inmates; a walled
community of convicts.
6.
I learned that BuCor, unfortunately, did not have the
capability to manage its affairs and to stop the proliferation of
organized illegal activities within the penitentiaries. Among the major
problems that contributed to this are the following:

0 Unsuitable and/ or faulty facilities which is basically due to the

lack of segregation capability;
0 Prison congestion or gross over-population of the facility;
0 Absence of any reliable computerized prison records;
0 Decades of uncorrected corrupt practices;
0 Prevalence of underground criminal operations (including
narcotics trade, prostitution, money lending and gambling);
0 Existence of a "Gang" or Pangkat System among inmates; and
o The existence of kubols and VIP system among inmates.
7.
All of these problems did not happen overnight or over the
course of my assignment as director of the BuCor. These problems
persisted long before my time thereat, and I trust, up to this very day.
These alarming and disturbing issues clearly point to a problem with
and within the systema complex problem that developed over the
past decades.
8.
As a matter of fact; the 16th Congress, through the House
Comrru'ttee on Justice; conducted a probe into the Bilibid and noted that
the problems ins'ide the penitentiary were deep and systemic; and that
"because of the congestion, there is already a thriving community and

economy ins'ide the NBP.1

9.

As such, addressing these issues was no walk in the park,

especially when resistance is strong from inside the prison walls and
when prisoners and personnel View BuCor directors as outsiders or as
temporary caretakers.

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10. Because of this I embarked on two major thrusts. First is to

capacitate BuCor to be able to attain its mission and to enlist the support
of other relevant government agencies in combatting illegal activities
inside the NBP. I did my level best in conceptualizing, spearheading
and implementing reforms within the NBP, including projects for the
inmates and BuCor personnel as well as efforts to improve NBP
facilities.
11. As a matter of fact, as early as 2013, I already requested for
the inclusion of the BuCor to the National Law Enforcement
Coordinating Council Subcommittee on Organized Crime (NALECC
SCOC) to establish and boost inter-agency coordination and
intelligence fusion in relation to the extensive assessment of the
situation at the NBP.
12. More importantly, it was during my term when these
problems Witlu'n the NBP were exposed and addressed. On December
15, 2014, BuCors "OPLAN NOMAD and NBIs "OPLAN
GALUGAD were implemented by elements of the DO], BuCor, NBI,
PNP, PDEA, and PAOCC. It was the first large scale, inter-agency effort
involving more than 400 law enforcement personnel that aimed to
dismantle the then existing operations of underground criminal
syndicates inside the NBP. It is the precedent and predecessor of the socalled "Oplan Galugad that was routinely undertaken at the NBP and
other prison facilities afterwards.
13. Assurrun'g that I was in the payroll of my accusers, as they
claim, then I had no reason or incentive to mount such a risky,
complicated and dangerous operation. Nevertheless, I am not
surprised that my accusers are testifying against me because they
clearly have an axe to grind against me. Oplan Nomad resulted in the
dismantling of their criminal operations and their separation from their
respective gangs due to their transfer to the N31 Detention Facility. On
top of this, prior to the operation, my adrru'nistration institutionalized
policies that affected the "comfort zones of these High Profile / High
Risk inrna'tes. Hence, it is no surprise that they are taking this
opportunity to Mt back and to implicate me in their illicit schemes as a
way to get even.

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UN 'l'llb' ISSUE OF OPLAN CRONUS

14. I would also like to take this opportunity to dispel the

insinuation that I prevented or preempted "OPLAN CRONLIS of the
Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), as testified to by
Police Deputy General Benjamin Magalong during the earlier hearings
before this august body. I have no power or authority to prevent it as it
was directly presented to the former head of the Department of Justice.
15. To set the record straight, when word started to go around
about the drug activities at the NBP, many law enforcement agencies, I
believe, took notice and started to develop their own intelligence and
plans on how to address the problem. As we have learned, the CIDG
came up with its own Oplan Cronus. I understand that even the
Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (ISAFP) also
started planning a similar project. The NBI also developed its own plan
(OPLAN GALUGAD) which complemented BuCors OPLAN
NOMAD. Since the NBI was already an active partner of BuCor and
PAOCC, their plan was regarded to have corresponded to the three
crucial concerns vital for the success of the operation:
First. Who should be extracted and segregated from the NBP?
Second. How to extract them without or with less violence; and
Third. Where should they be transferred?

16. The BuCor started preliminary preparations to address NBP

problems as early as 2013one month after I assumed officeWith
our application for membership to the NALECC-SCOC. Also, in July
2014, BuCor already recommended and requested for the creation of an
Inter-Agency Task Force for the purpose of countering the operations
and influence of gangs and criminal syndicates in the NBP. This is
evidenced by a Memorandum dated 24 July 2014 from BuCor to the
SO].
17.
Moreover, preparations to address NBP issues were already
being undertaken when sometime in September or October 2014, I was
directed by the Secretary of Justice to attend a meeting in' PDEA which
was also attended by NBI and CIDG wherein activities to address the
criminality inside the NBP was discussed. As a reaction to this, I voiced
out my concern about the careful planning of the extraction of HP/ HR
inmates from the NBP to prevent any possible violent confrontation

during extraction. This is considering that at the Maximum Security

Compound, the inmates, numbering to more than 14,000, are not
restrained and the HP/ HR inmates are embedded within their
respective gangs as leaders or as influential sponsors.

18. Another concern was how to address the bigger problem of

where to transfer these extracted inmates since there is no facility under
BuCor which can effectively segregate them from the inmate
population even in BuCors regional facilities.
19. Subsequently, in one of the meetings among the heads of
DO], BuCor, NBI, and PAOCC, I asked the former Secretary of Justice
if we were going to inform CIDG on the plan and she said no need.
It seemed that since there was already a prior coordination with the NBl
that time, there really was no need to bring in another investigating unit
into the fold.
20. Needless to say, the operation in December 2014 was very
successfulwith the 19 High Profile/ High Risk inmates extracted
without violence and the illegal activities inside the facility severely
crippled, if not halted. Nevertheless, even after that operation in
December 2014 until now, there are still contrabands that are being
confiscated from inside the NBP. This reflects the depth of the problem
of our jail facilities and system.

21. All of these events and incidents are fully documented by

appropriate memos, reports, and other documents and can be properly
verified; to include the legal opinion from the former Secretary of
Justice on the legality of the transfer of inmates to a detention facility
other than the one designated by the courts upon the inmates
conviction.

22. This major operation was done in fulfillment of my duty as

BuCor Director to initiate changes at the NBP and to address the
challenges within the existing prison system and the corrupt culture in
our national penitentiary which has been existing for decades.
23.
Undertaking the said operation had a big price to pay
including threats to my life and to my family which has caused us so
much distress not to mention the anxiety of possible retribution from
the inmates affected by the operation. Even immediately after the
operation; I and participating BuCor personnel; were publicly

perceived to have been sleeping on the job and that the operation
caught us at-footed.
24. The frustrations and feelings of abandonment after that
operation were too much to bear that I tendered my resignation to the
former Secretary of Justice on that same day. Finally, in February 10,
2015 I submitted my written letter of resignation to the former SO].

25. Volumes of documents will prove my unrelenting efforts to

battle the proliferation of illegal activities in the NBP and to prevent its
perpetrators from conducting them within the four walls of the Bilibid.
Like President Rodrigo Duterte, I believe that illegal drugs pose a
serious threat to our citizenry, and I fully support his war on the illegal
drug trade and his initiatives to neutralize those behind it.
26. These are the facts, your honors. Again, let me put on record
that I have no connection nor I have ever been involved with the
illegal drug trade inside and outside the national penitentiary. My
conscience is clear. All I did was to do my job with all honesty and
regularity. Nagtrabaho lang po ako.

27.

Maraming salamat po!

0CID5ZUli

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this __ day

MANILA .
of October 2016 at

FRANKLINWB. BUCAYU
fm f.
0C}r [l 5 2015
day of October

SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to before me this

2016 at ___,
WW7- affiant exhibiting to me hisww WWC I. D. with No.
as competent evidence of
p____W'Pl5l>'DOSK>KKW issued on
identity.

.
Elm, I; .I

EMA. Ami!

._

35".h/l4
..i c.74CrHCE

Book No. _J_[_;

Series of 2016.

f yyyyy .

Doc.No. _,'
693g
Page No. -__~_,
49

NPMOTHARY
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