There is absolutely no way the people can be made to believe this is anyway near the Tuwid na Landas policy of the Aquino administration.

The guy who is tasked to run correctional facilities is himself facing charges of – get this – plunder. That’s grand theft of public finds.

We now, we know: People are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, but we haev to reckon with public perception.

But any appointee to a public office  must not only be of impeccable credentials; he or she must be perceived to be men and women of proven “integrity, probity, and competence”?   

If there are doubts about any appointees’ character, the least the appointing power must do is to hold in abeyance his or her appointment.

And why are former officials of state security forces – retired National Police and Armed Forces generals – continue to get their “golden parachutes” after leaving the service while our cops and soldiers continue to be ill-fed, inadequately equipped, and poorly armed?    

The thing is, if President Aquino set a very high moral standard for himself even while still  campaigning and reiterated his commitment to his Tuwid na Daan doctrine after he was installed in office, why should it be any less for his officials who, by definition, is an extension of the Executive department? 

Apparently the President made an effortless decision to appoint retired military general  Gaudencio Pangilinan Jr. as head of the Bureau of Corrections despite a pending plunder case against him.

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said Pangilinan was being given the benefit of the doubt on the plunder case filed against him by retired Col. George Rabusa.

“Constitutionally speaking, he is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” Lacierda was quoted by a broadsheet as unabashedly saying.

“The President believes in his expertise in counter intelligence,” Lacierda said. “The order is to reform the agency. We believe in his competence.”

At his oath-taking Thursday, Pangilinan vowed to eradicate crime and preferential treatment at the national penitentiary.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who administered his oath, said the President ordered Pangilinan to stop the proliferation of drugs and prostitution within the New Bilibid Prison.

Pangilinan said he needed time to review the systems in the bureau.

“It’s a totally different picture from what I grew up with in the military, so I have to adjust,” he said. s

Rabusa, a former military budget officer, claimed Pangilinan amassed some P88 million in military funds during his stint as executive assistant to then chief of staff Arturo Enrile.

Pangilinan had already filed his counter-affidavit before the Justice department, Lacierda said.

Lacierda said Pangilinan’s appointment papers were signed on July 19, or three days before he retired as head of the Northern Luzon Command.

A member of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1979, Pangilinan previously led the Counter Intelligence Group of the Armed Forces.

As the first commander of Task Force Davao, he developed the module for counter-terrorism campaigns in urban areas.

He is a Philippine Legion of Honor recipient. He finished his master’s in Strategic Studies at the United States Army War College .

Pangilinan replaced former police general Ernesto Diokno as bureau head. Diokno resigned after influential inmates such as former Batangas governor Antonio Leviste were found able to get in and out of the national penitentiary without permission.