Aguirre welcomes Dela Rosa’s appointment as next BuCor chief

FILE: Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to appoint Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Dir. Gen. Ronald Dela Rosa as the next head of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). (ALBERT ALCAIN/Presidential Photo)

MANILA — Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Thursday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to appoint Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Dir. Gen. Ronald Dela Rosa as the next head of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

BuCor is an attached agency of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Definitely I support his appointment and I know that his stint as CPNP (chief PNP) will be very useful in addressing the problems in the BuCor. I was consulted several months ago on his forthcoming appointment as BuCor Chief. I wholeheartedly agreed and supported it,” Aguirre said in a text meesage sent to reporters.

Aguirre added that he already endorsed the appointment of three mistahs (batchmates) of Dela Rosa as Deputy Directors of BuCor namely retired police generals Valfrie G. Tabian, currently BuCor officer-in-charge, Melvin Ramon G. Buenafe and Gen. Heriberto O. Olitoquit.

“As a matter of fact, I endorsed to the Palace the appointments of the three Deputy Directors of BuCor, who are all retired mistahs of Gen. Bato. BuCor needs the kind of caliber of Gen. Bato to solve its very difficult problems,” Aguirre said.

BuCor’s operating units include New Bilbid Prison in Muntinlupa CIty, Abuyog Penal Colony in Leyte, Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa in Palawan, Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro, San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga City and the Davao Prison and Penal Farm.

Dela Rosa is set to retire on January 21 next year, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 56 for police officers.

Duterte, however, said he will extend dela Rosa’s term to three months.

“I have that discretion to extend even beyond retirement age,” the President told reporters in Taguig City on Wednesday.

“Marami pa kasi akong gagawin, I want to do some things in Mindanao of utmost importance and I need to extend the tour of duty of General dela Rosa to something like two to three months,” he said.

The extension, Duterte said, was primarily to facilitate the infrastructure and physical setting of the headquarters of the police in Mindanao.

“Once the projects are in place or operational or functional, then he goes to the BuCor,” he said.