THE Department of Justice (DOJ) has inked an agreement with the University of the Philippines – Manila system and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)) for a new protocol on the investigation of inmates’ deaths inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City and the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the agreement seeks to strengthen the current procedures.
Remulla, UP Manila Chancellor Michael Tee and UNODC Programme Office in the Philippines Country Manager Daniele Marchesi spearheaded the signing for their respective institutions.
It was Remulla’s first public event in the DOJ since March this year.
Under the agreement, inmates who died inside the NBP and the CIW would undergo forensic examination at UP Manila first before their bodies are taken to funeral parlors for embalming.
UP will provide technical expertise in the determination of the death by carrying out autopsies on the bodies of deceased inmates in accordance with international standards.
The UNODC, on the other hand, will provide vital technical assistance and normative support to make sure that collaborative efforts are maintained.
“Our collaborative efforts with UP and the UNODC will be vital in ensuring that even our dead Persons Deprived of Liberty will be given justice, dignity, humane treatment and respect,” Remulla said.
DOJ Undersecretary Jesse Andres said the new protocol would enable authorities to know the exact cause of the death of an inmate.
“Instead of bringing them straight to the funeral parlor for embalming they will have to be brought first to UP Manila for forensic examination or autopsy before they would be eventually transferred to a funeral parlor for embalming,” Andres told reporters in a press briefing.
“In that way, there will be a process by which we would establish the true cause of death,” he added.
He said that by knowing the exact cause of the inmates’ demise, the DOJ and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) would be able to prevent its causes as well as build health facilities to ensure the care of inmates.
Forensic pathologist Dr.Raquel Fortun said the new protocol should be institutionalized not only in the NBP and CIW but all prison facilities nationwide.
Aside from the NBP and the CIW, the BuCor also operates the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan, Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog, Leyte and the San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga City.
The NBP and BuCor’s six other operating prison and penal farms hold over 50,000 inmates, although their total capacity is only around 12,000, or an average congestion rate of 310 percent.
The national penitentiary alone currently holds 25,886 inmates, though originally it only had a 6,000 capacity when it was built.
“It should be nationwide.Lahat ng prisons dapat pag aaralan, titingnan, eeksamin. You have to determine the pattern of inmates’ deaths,” Fortun said, adding that that is what is currently lacking.
“The bigger picture is we should have a net investigation system.Included in that system should be the automatic investigation of deaths, instititionalized deaths,” he added.
Fortun said the new protocol is just “one step” in that direction.
BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr.said that from 2020 to 2023, the agency recorded 4,636 deaths of inmates in the NBP and the other operating prison facilities due to various causes.
In 2020, he said BuCor records showed 1,182 deaths; 1,166 the following year; 925 in 2022, and 876 in 2023.
“Now, from January to June, we have about 487 deaths. When I came in as the new Bucor Chief, I can still vividly remember that I had to bury about 140 cadavers who have been forgotten,” Catapang said, adding these inmates succumbed mostly to natural causes.
Catapang said the new protocols would broaden the procedures to investigate every death of an inmate that occurs within the correction facilities without distinction whether the cause of death is natural or unlawful.
Prior to the signing of the declaration, Catapang explained that under the BuCor’s manual, unless claimed by relatives, the body of a PDL who dies in the corrections’ facility may be turned over to an institution of learning or any scientific research center designated by the DOJ secretary, for the purpose of study and investigation, provided that such institution shall provide a decent burial of the remains.
Otherwise, the BuCor shall order the burial of the body of the inmate at government expense.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the deaths of several inmates at the NBP, including nine high-profile inmates such as Jaybee Sebastian, generated controversy, especially since the bodies were immediately cremated due to health protocols, fueling speculations of a cover-up as to the real cause of their deaths.
