JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday directed Bureau of Corrections Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr.to help him clean up the country’s prison and penal colonies and prevent abuses to Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs).
Remulla said this was the marching order he issued after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. officially appointed the former military general as permanent BuCor head.
The appointment papers of Catapang — who has served as the agency’s officer-in-charge since October 2022— was released to the media last Friday.
He assumes the top BuCor post after the suspension of Gerald Bantag, who was tagged in the killing of radio commentator Percival “Percy Lapid” Mabasa and Bilibid inmate Cristito Palana Villamor, alias Jun Villamor, the alleged middleman in the Lapid slay case.
Bantag also faces various complaints since he left the BuCor, including the alleged torture of its personnel and inmates as well as plunder in connection with the construction of a P1 billion worth of prison facilities meant to alleviate prison congestion.
“I have given him the same marching orders when he was designated as acting BuCor director general to help us clean up the jails and make jails more functional. To make it more humane to our PDLs. That is our commitment and obligation to the law,” Remulla told reporters.
The New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City as well as other prison and penal colonies supervised by BuCor are all experiencing overcrowding due to the huge number of PDLs detained, well above their carrying capacity.
The NBP, the country’s main penitentiary, has a total inmate population of 29,204 as of October 2022, though it had an intended capacity of only 6,345 when it was constructed in 1940.
The rest of the BuCor’s operating prisons — 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 and the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City — are also experiencing similar congestion problems.
Remulla said these prison facilities had an inmate population of over 50,000 as of January this year, although their total capacity is only around 12,000, or an average congestion rate of 310 percent.
To alleviate the problem, the DOJ and BuCor had been releasing qualified PDLs — the elderly and sick inmates and those who have completed their sentence or paroled — since July 2022.
BuCor data showed 4, 994 PDLs have been freed under the program.
Part of the decongestion plan also include the building of regional prisons and the transfer of heinous crime convicts to high-tech prison facilities inside three military reservation camps in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Aside from making jail facilities more humane and livable, Remulla said he told Catapang to ensure that no more abuses will happen to PDLs.
“I don’t want any abuse to happen again. I think that we can make things more humane so that we can have a better system of law and order,” he added.
A study conducted by the Justice Sector Coordinating Council, an inter-agency body composed of the DOJ, Supreme Court and the Department of Interior and Local Government on prison congestion, showed that at the end of 2021, there were almost 200,000 inmates in the country.
Around 70 percent of these are detention prisoners with ongoing case trials while 30 percent are serving their sentence.
The study also showed that 70 percent of Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facilities are overcrowded, with an average congestion rate of 386 percent.
RESHUFFLE
Catapang said he will reshuffle the BuCor personnel assigned not only in the national penitentiary but the rest of its prison and penal colonies.
“There will be a reshuffle in BuCor. I don’t want to preempt it, I will have a command conference tomorrow where I will announce the reshuffling of personnel within BuCor,” Catapang said after taking his oath as the BuCor chief.
He did not provide details so as not to “cause unease” among BuCor personnel.
