THE Philippine Coast Guard yesterday asked the Bureau of Correction for a 20-hectare lot in the 350-hectare New Bilibid Prison (NBP) complex in Muntinlupa City to construct their permanent headquarters.
There are plans to transform the NBP, which will be closed in 2028, into a government center. The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) is eyeing a one-stop shop for government agencies that will be clean, green and technology driven.
BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang said PCG officials led by Adm. Ronnie Gil Gavan discussed the request when they paid him a courtesy visit at his office yesterday.
Catapang said Gavan asked the agency for the allocation of at least 20 hectares for the planned government center of BuCor in its Bilibid property once all the inmates there are transferred outside of Metro Manila.
“In return, the PCG projected service offerings include the utilization of PCG surface assets to transfer persons deprived of liberty or PDLs, utilization of buses to transport PDLs from NBP to ports in Manila, utilization of PCG aircraft’s for use during inspections at the regional prisons and penal facilities and the training of BuCor personnel by PCG relative to BuCor’s mandated functions,” he said.
PCG spokesman Rear Adm. Armando Balilo did not answer calls for comment.
Catapang said he told Gavan he has no objection to the request, adding that the PCG and other government agencies are welcome to put up their offices in the planned government center.
“Although, initially the BuCor can only accommodate the PCG request for 3 hectares out of the 20 hectares they requested,” he said.
Catapang said to augment or expand the PCG lot, the BuCor is also offering it a parcel of land in a BuCor property in Palawan which is close to the West Philippine Sea.
Aside from government center, the Department of Justice to which the BuCor is an attached agency also wants to set aside 100 hectares of the Bilibid complex for an open park, like the Central Park in New York, once the inmates are transferred.
Also included in the plan are educational center, hospital and housing for BuCor and Justice employees and for those informal settlers who will be affected by the transfer of inmates.
The transfer of the Bilibid inmates and the closure of the national penitentiary is part of the DOJ and the BuCor’s plan to transform the sprawling complex into a government and commercial center by 2028.
Also part of the plan is the building of regional prisons and the transfer of heinous crime convicts to high-tech prison facilities inside three military reservation camps in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
Since last year, the BuCor has transferred some 2,300 inmates from the NBP and the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City to Iwahig, the Davao Prison and Penal Farm and Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro.
