CAMARINES Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte yesterday urged the House leadership to facilitate the approval of a measure seeking to abolish the Bureaus of Corrections (BuCor) and of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), in favor of a new National Commission on Corrections and Jail Management (NCCJM), before the 19th Congress adjourns next year.
Villafuerte was referring to his House Bill (HB) No. 8101, which is proposing that the NCCJM be put in charge of running all jail and other detention facilities now under the separate jurisdiction of either bureaus or of local government units (LGUs).
“This proposed Commission shall be an independent and autonomous authority envisioned to carry out a unified corrections and jail management system for all PDLs (persons deprived of liberty) and detainees, including the implementation of customary and reformary mandates for all detained persons, regionalization and upgrading of prison facilities and equipment, and professionalization of its officials and employees,” said the bill.
The proposed Unified Corrections and Jail Management System Act under the bill remains pending before the House Committee on Justice.
Villafuerte said he filed the measure because the country “has a fragmented jail management system, with prisons and penal farms under the BuCor of the DOJ, the provincial jails under their respective provincial governments; and the district, city and municipal jails under the BJMP of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
He said having a “disparate set of rules is not conducive to the efficient and effective management of these facilities and the reformation of prisoners. Mismanagement results in unintended consequences such as overcrowding, jail disturbances, poor sanitation and maltreatment of PDLs and detainees.”
“This bill seeks to integrate the management of all jails and prisons under one agency to have a common standard of practice to further professionalize management and centralize accountability. It likewise hopes to help decongest our detention centers and implement better programs for the rehabilitation of our PDLs and detainees,” the bill said.
Under the bill, the new commission “shall be the sole authority with jurisdiction over all facilities and premises of national prisons and penal farms, provincial, sub-provincial, city and municipal jails, and other correctional facilities that will be established in the future.
It shall also be responsible for the custody of detainees, and the safekeeping and rehabilitation of prisoners, as well as exercise control and supervision over all its personnel.
Excluded from the jurisdiction of the proposed commission are the detention centers and lock-up cells being maintained by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Boys Town, Girls Center, and other youth rehabilitation centers.
HB 8101 supersedes HB 4707 that Villafuerte had filed with his fellow Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata with Rep. Brian Yamsuan (PL, Bicol Saro) seeking the transfer to the BJMP of control and supervision over all provincial jails run by LGUs.
