00:00 The Department of Justice joined the hearing today to lay out their proposed budget for the upcoming year.
00:07 Some reforms were also discussed that the agency will implement.
00:11 Mela Lesmora has the news.
00:13 The Department of Justice is now considering implementing a new legislation in the Bureau of Corrections
00:22 after the escape of the inmate, Michael Cataruja, from New Belivid Prison, who was recently arrested.
00:29 According to DOJ Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulia,
00:33 there is a lack of tolerance and system that they are now trying to fix.
00:57 According to Bucor Chief Gregorio Catapang Jr., the investigation into the incident is still ongoing.
01:03 We sent our detector, Cataruja, but he passed because his statements are conflicting.
01:14 The Board of Inquiry has not yet filed a final report.
01:19 So it's either connivance or negligence what happened there.
01:25 Remulia and Catapang are now facing the camera for the DOJ's proposed fund for the upcoming year.
01:35 Compared to the budget for 2023, their request for the 2024 fund is bigger, worth more than P34 billion.
01:45 The issue of the right of persons deprived of liberty in the country was also discussed in the hearing.
01:51 The government's campaign against illegal drugs, controversy in the West Philippine Sea, and the continued modernization of the DOJ.
01:59 Even though the DOJ is facing a left-right issue,
02:11 the judges considered the agency's budget to be a good use.
02:17 This is our second week of budget hearings.
02:20 So far, you have the highest budget utilization rate.
02:25 This is all the more noteworthy because as you know,
02:30 second quarter of 2023, government spending contracted by 7 percent.
02:36 So all the more we need to commend the DOJ. So sir, keep it up.
02:42 In the name of the government's services, the judges are insisting that even in the budget deliberations,
02:48 they are just wasting the plans and programs of government agencies.
02:54 Mela Las Moras for the nation.
