THE Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) yesterday signed an agreement with the United States Department of Justice-International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes for the institutionalization of rehabilitation programs aimed at reforming violent extremist offenders inside its prison facilities.
Also signing the agreement was the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
Under the agreement, officially dubbed as the Declaration of Cooperation, the BuCor and the BJMP shall designate specific personnel and adopt assessment tools for use in their prison and detention facilities to help reform VEO offenders.
BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said the UN will provide technical assistance for the development of the VEO assessment tools and facilitate the exchange of best practices on assessment, classification, and case management programs for such offenders.
The US DOJ will work with the agency to establish a sustainable intake process and risk assessment for the evaluation, classification and management of inmates with terrorism-related cases and other high-risk detainees.
Catapang said there are 151 members of the Abu Sayyaf Group, 125 former members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, three members of the Rajah Solaiman Movement, one from the Daulah Islamiyah, 19 Mauti-ISIS, three from Jamaah Islamiyah and one from the Indonesian ISIS are currently detained the New Bilibid Prison and other prison facilities operated by the agency.
“The increasing number of VEOs being received in BuCor justified the necessity of developing a very specific program for this special group of offenders, in line with the BuCor preventing and countering violent extremism effort or PCVE,” Catapang said, adding that terrorism won’t end with the apprehension of a terrorist.
“Once a terrorist is incarcerated, the prison administration should be able to facilitate a program in line with the PCVE,” he added.
Catapang said the program would also ensure that prison facilities do not become breeding grounds for radicalization, adding the presence or absence of such a program will determine to a large extent an inmate’s resolve to either embrace or reject extremist views.
The Philippine government in 2019 adopted the National Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism, which among others, required the BuCor and the BJMP to develop a uniform assessment and classification system for inmates under their care.
The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 also requires the BuCor and the BJMP to come up with a system to properly manage, handle, and, if needed, intervene to initiate rehabilitation programs for persons detained for committing terrorism.
