INMATE Michael Cataroja must have been watching too many Netflix movies that goaded him to try one of the tricks used by prisoners in these videos. One day last July, Cataroja squeezed himself inside a small space underneath a garbage truck in a daring escape that baffled authorities at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City. Arrested after more than a month, the inmate showed investigators in a reenactment how he successfully did it.
Cataroja was reported missing in July, and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officials led by Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. could not provide Sen. Francis Tolentino’s committee investigating the bureau definitive answers on Cataroja’s whereabouts. The senator said if Cataroja was alive and unaccounted for, the maximum security officers are at fault for not guarding their wards well. If he was dead or killed and dumped in the prison’s septic tank, greater problems would befall prison authorities.
‘This is the first time that a “cashless society” will be experimented inside the Bilibid, and many are interested and curious if this will make a difference…’
Cataroja’s arrest on August 17 in Angono, Rizal will limit Tolentino’s justice committee probe which is scheduled today, to the offense of omission — inadequate security measures at the maximum security compound. Cataroja who is serving time for violation of the anti-fencing law and carnapping, has scoffed at maximum security procedures at the NBP by mounting a successful escape.
If this is the kind of maximum security Catapang and his guards can deliver, one could imagine how lax the anti-escape measures would be in the minimum and medium security compounds.
Catapang has aired in various media interviews his dual problem of unruly persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) and corrupt and inefficient BuCor employees. But to his credit, Catapang recognizes the truth that the gap between the rich and the poor is most pronounced inside the NBP where “cash is king.” Wealthy PDLs are given VIP treatment by prison guards and personnel, and ordinary, poor inmates are at their beck and call.
Catapang announced that BuCor will start implementing a cashless policy inside its prisons and penal farms in September. The new policy is designed to stop illegal activities inside prisons, which are conducted through cash payments. Drugs, cellphones, liquor, and other contraband are freely sold and bought inside the prisons, with both BuCor personnel and inmates profiting from the trade.
The “cashless zone” policy means PDLs and even Corrections Officers (COs) assigned to man the security compound will not be allowed to carry cash, or it will be confiscated.
Catapang said PDLs would be issued booklets similar to the ones given by commercial banks, indicating the amount credited to the holder’s name. The booklet owner would be entitled to purchase items in prison stores and receive a maximum amount of P2,000 a week.
“With this new policy, we are hitting two birds with one stone. One is eradicating the use of cash in illegal business transactions of PDLs, and two, we will be able to discipline our personnel from meddling with PDL’s money,” Catapang said.
This is the first time that a “cashless society” will be experimented inside the Bilibid, and many are interested and curious if this will make a difference and transform the NBP into a truly corrective institution.
