'Chop-chop' killer asks De Lima for help

MANILA, Philippines - An inmate of the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) who has filed graft charges against ranking officials of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is asking Justice Secretary Leila de Lima for protection.

Stephen Mark Whisenhunt – who was convicted of murder in 1996 for killing his lover, Elsa Castillo, and chopping up her body – said in a July 1 letter to De Lima that other inmates of the NBP’s maximum security compound are being influenced to file charges against him.

Whisenhunt recently filed a graft complaint against (BuCor) director Oscar Calderon, head executive assistant Bartolome Bustamante, assistant director for administration and reformation Teodora Diaz, and documents section chief Zenaida Hierco before the Office of the Ombudsman.

He said BuCor officials refuse to apply to him the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) formula used in the case of former congressman Romeo Jalosjos, who was freed in March 2009.

Whisenhunt claimed that if the same formula is to be used to compute his time served at the NBP, he should have been released five months ago.

He alleged BuCor officials are allegedly trying to get back at him by influencing other inmates of Dorm 9-A at the NBP’s maximum security compound to file charges against him in a bid to have him stripped of his current institutional assignment as chief petty officer or “mayor” of Dorm 9-A and then have his colonist status revoked.

His lawyer, Joanne Pilapil, said that as early as March, Whisenhunt told the Department of Justice that Bustamante has repeatedly cautioned and warned him about the revocation of his colonist status should he proceed with his legal actions.