BUREAU of Corrections Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. yesterday installed a female officer to oversee the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City where hardened criminals, including drug lords, are detained.
Catapang also replaced the 700 jail guards securing the maximum security compound due to alleged irregularities. Taking over are 300 prison guards who will be provided with body cameras.
Catapang assigned Supt. Purificacion Hari as superintendent of the maximum security compound, replacing Sr. Insp. Lucio Guevarra, the acting superintendent of the facility.
Of the 50,126 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) detained in the national penitentiary and six other prison and penal facilities, 29,530 are detained at the NBP’s maximum, medium and minimum security compounds as of January 2023. More than 17,000 are detained at the NBP’s maximum security compound, including big-time drug lords, held at Building 14.
The NBP was built to accommodate only 6,435 PDLs.
“I still receive information of misdemeanors,” Catapang, a former military general said, adding some of the replaced guards do not report for duty and have somebody else signing their attendance.
He said the 700 will undergo retraining and refresher courses on the BuCor manuals and regulations under the supervision of international prison reforms expert Prof. Raymund Narag of Southern Illinois University.
An advocate of restorative justice, Narag has been working to introduce reforms to the correction system ever since he was detained at the Quezon City jail in the 1990s after he and 10 other students of the University of the Philippines-Diliman were charged with murder, two counts of frustrated murder, and three counts of attempted murder in connection with a brawl between his fraternity Scintilla Juris and Sigma Rho that led to the death of Sigma Rhoan Dennis Venturina.
Narag spent six years, nine months, and four days in the confines of the Quezon city jail before he was acquitted and released in 2002.
Catapang said once the guards have completed retraining, they will be assigned to other prison and penal farms operated by the BuCor.
Aside from NBP, the BuCor also operates the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan, San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga, Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro, Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog, Southern Leyte, and the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City.
Catapang said despite the smaller number of replacement guards, he is confident they will be able to do their job well since they would be assisted by modern technology such as body cameras and close circuit televisions as well as scanners.
He reminded the new jail guards to do their job and never commit irregularities, adding he will run after them if they do so.
“I won’t accept any excuses, but just to make sure that we are all on the same page, we will review all rules and regulations of BuCor, so we all understand each other,” he added.
Last month, Catapang said he will replace the guards assigned at the NBP’s maximum security compound as part of a massive reorganization in the bureau.
He said then he will also install a female commandant of the correction officers assigned to secure the facility.
