“AY SORRY, hindi pala namin napadala itong dokumento (Sorry we failed to send these documents).”
This was the reason given by a court staff to prison reform advocate and Southern Illinois University Professor Raymund Narag when he sought the release of an inmate who has already overstayed his detention by four years.
Narag, who has been engaged by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla as a prison reform expert, narrated the incident in a Facebook post where he said the inmate was supposed to serve only three years in a jail in Cavite province.
“Just-tiis (Just sacrifice). He stayed in detention for 7 years. His total maximum penalty is only three years. He overstayed in detention for more than 4 years,” Narag said in his post.
“This is not from a far-flung, geographically inaccessible place. This is from one of the bigger cities in Cavite,” he added.
Narag said the inmate was apprehended in 2017 during the anti-drug crackdown of the Duterte administration and was charged with three counts of drug use.
In 2020, at the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, and after three years of postponed hearings, Narag said the inmate was “forced” to plead guilty and bargained for a lower penalty.
He was then sentenced one year for each of the three counts, totaling to three years of imprisonment.
“He was promised that he already served his sentence and that he will be immediately released. This promise was done on open court. The COVID lockdown was proclaimed, however, and his court decision and order of release never came. He waited and waited,” Narag said, adding: “No one heard him. No visitor, no lawyer, no judge checked on him. For four long years!”
Narag said he got the chance to interview the inmate when he conducted a training on jail management as part of his prison reform advocacy.
He said he pleaded with jail officers to release him immediately but was told they cannot do so since they need to first verify his detention time with the court which sentenced him.
During verification, Narag said the court staff were shocked to learn that the inmate was still languishing in jail.
“Ay sori di pala namin napadala itong mga dokumento (We’re sorry, we failed to send the documents). The lamest of explanations given,” he said.
“Why are these things continually happening? Why can we not design a way to detect Persons Deprived of Liberty who are needlessly languishing in jail?” he asked.
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.
He spent six years, nine months, and four days in the confines of the Quezon city jail before he was acquitted and released in 2002.
