CONTRABAND items confiscated from inmates in the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City have been converted to art works as part of the Bureau of Correction’s (BuCor) 118th founding anniversary.
The contraband items-turned art works have been on display inside the NBP’s administration building since Monday.
BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said that since he assumed the post in October last year, more than 6,000 contraband items ranging from bladed weapons, knives, and homemade sharpened objects have been confiscated in several “Oplan Galugad” operations inside the national penitentiary.
“Oplan Galugad” is the term used by the agency for operations designed to ferret out illegal items, as well as illegal drugs.
Catapang said they brought the items to Pete Jimenez, a visual artist with a substantial body of work in the field of sculpture.
“The said pieces of metal that symbolizes violence was turned into something beautiful and very significant which convey the message ‘farms not arms,’” he said of the art works.
Catapang said this will serve as a reminder to inmates and the public of the changes happening not only in the NBP but also in other prison and penal colonies under the agency’s supervision.
“It will also send a strong message that instead of making arms why not farm in support of the governments food security program,” the BuCor chief added.
In a related development, the Rotary Club of Quiapo Plaza Miranda in partnership with the BuCor will undertake a social reform program aimed at providing vital rehabilitation and reformation service to Bilibid inmates.
Dubbed “Creating Hope in the New Bilibid Prison via Project Laya and Hope Creating Gallery,” Catapang said the project adopts a wholistic approach to identify qualified inmates who have shown genuine desire to better themselves and provide them with an opportunity to develop a skillset that can be an asset to society.
Lawyer Armand Galang, the president of the Rotary Club of Quiapo Plaza Miranda, said it is part of their overall effort to assist the BuCor in its inmates’ reformation program.
Galang said they also have another program dubbed the “Kulayan Artists of the NBP” which tap the talents of inmates in creative arts.
