The Philippine president on Wednesday fired the government’s top prison official amid a public outcry over the release of hundreds of prisoners, including convicted drug traffickers and rapists, under a law rewarding good behavior with shorter jail terms. President Rodrigo Duterte said in a televised news conference that Undersecretary Nicanor Faeldon of the Bureau of Corrections would immediately resign for disobeying his order to halt the releases of convicted prisoners under the 2014 law. Prison officials will be investigated by a special anti-corruption prosecutor called the Ombudsman in connection with the massive releases of convicts, Duterte said.
