500 inmates transferred to Davao prison facility

CORRECTIONS Director General Gregorio Catapang yesterday said 500 inmates from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City and the Correctional Institute for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City were transferred to the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) on Monday morning.

The transfer is part of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) overall efforts to decongest the national penitentiary and the CIW, which are both experiencing congestion problems.

The Bureau of Corrections is an attached agency of the DOJ.

Of the 500 inmates, 114 came from the NBP’s maximum security compound, 36 from the medium security compound, and 300 from the reception and diagnostic center.

Catapang said 50 of the transferred inmates were from the CIW.

Last September, Catapang said 4,150 inmates from the NBP will be transferred to the DPPF before the end of 2023.

He likewise said the BuCor is fast-tracking the construction of additional facilities at the DPPF to house the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) who will be moved from the Bilibid.

The construction of the facilities worth P288.8 million started in December 2020 and was supposed to be completed in August last year, but the agency said only 84.77 percent had been completed at the time.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has said that the NBP and the six other prison facilities operated by the BuCor have an average congestion rate of 310 percent.

He also said that the BuCor-operated prison facilities have an inmate population of over 50,000 as of January this year, although their total capacity is only 12,000 prisoners.

The national penitentiary has an occupancy rate of 477 percent, with its congestion rate at 377 percent. It has a capacity of only 6,435 inmates but as of June this year, its inmate population was already at 30,701.

On the other hand, as of January this year, the CIW has a 230 percent congestion rate, 3,297 inmates cramped inside the facility with a capacity of only 1,008.