BUREAU of Corrections Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. yesterday urged the Department of Agriculture to make use of idle lands in penal colonies for food production and to train inmates to become farmers.
Catapang said that except for the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City, the agency has six operating prison and penal farms nationwide with 80 to 90 percent of its more than 47,000 hectares of total land areas available for farming and more than 50,000 inmates who can be tapped to become farmers.
The Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan, which is now the site of a pilot project for agro-tourism and food production areas, will be using 501 hectares of its 28,326 total land area.
Of the 501 hectares allotted for farming, 4.5 hectares are to be planted with assorted vegetables, 30 hectares for cashew trees, one hectare for fruits and vegetable herbs, half-hectare for tilapia fishpond, 40 hectares for rice planting, 400 hectares for livestock and 25 hectares for yellow corn production.
Catapang said this should be replicated in its other penal colonies.
Aside from Iwahig, the BuCor chief said the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City has a total land area of 375.61 hectares, of which 200 hectares are idle.
He said Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm has 8,327 hectares, San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga City has 664.74 hectares, Davao Prison and Penal Farm has 8,446 hectares and the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog, Leyte has 861.6 hectares.
“The government is spending P120,000 per Person Deprived of Liberty annually and yet they are doing nothing, so we have to make them relevant. If we are lucky and Iwahig is turned into a rice field, this may even contribute to lowering the prices of rice,” he said.
Catapang said the NBP can also be utilized as a food terminal so that products from north Luzon can easily reach those living in the southern part of Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
“We have to make our PDLs relevant since if they are provided with work and will be able to generate income for the BuCor, the time will come that BuCor will no longer rely on the national government for funding and may even share its income with the government,” he said.
He said the BuCor will put up in October a Pambansang Bagsakan ng Bigas para sa Mamamayan inside the NBP reservation area to provide direct farm-to-market products, thereby eliminating middlemen so that consumers can directly benefit from cheaper rice and other agricultural products.
Last Friday, the BuCor, in partnership with the DA, launched its first KADIWA Pop-UP Store inside the NBP reservation area to help the national government in its efforts to provide the public with food at affordable prices.
