MANILA -- Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra administered the oath of office to newly-appointed Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Nicanor Faeldon on Wednesday.
DOJ spokesperson Undersecretary Markk Perete appeared before newsmen in Faeldon's behalf and said the latter plans to visit the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa "anytime this week".
Perete said on top of Faeldon's concerns were the drug trade inside the penitentiary, the inmate population congestion and the transfer of the national penitentiary to another locality.
Perete described the meeting between Faeldon and Guevarra as "casual" and allowed the two to thresh out pending issues in the penal system.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed Faeldon’s appointment paper on November 19.
Prior to his appointment as BuCor chief, Faeldon was named Office of the Civil Defense deputy administrator.
He quit as Customs Commissioner amid the controversy on the PHP6.4-billion shabu shipment that slipped past the bureau.
The BuCor, an attached agency under the Department of Justice (DOJ), exercises supervision over the country's penal facilities, including the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa - which currently houses more than 27,000 inmates serving their sentence. (PNA)
