Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan of Bicol Saro Partylist lamented the deterioration of the country’s penal institutions into “breeding grounds of despair and recidivism.”
The lawmaker is also urging his colleagues to help revert these institutions into “places of rehabilitation and transformation.”
In demonstrating the appalling state of the Philippines’ penal facilities, Yamsuan in a privilege speech said officials of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) have informed him that there are only 16 medical officers and 3 psychiatrists to provide health care services to persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) locked up in district, municipal and city jails managed by the agency throughout the country.
Jail congestion has reached untolerable limits, with prisons across the country meant for 12,251 PDLs now housing 51,561 individuals, according to the latest available data from the BJMP and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Yamsuan said.
“Our correctional system is in a stage of severe crisis,” said Yamsuan in his first privilege speech delivered before the plenary session of the House of Representatives on Sept. 4.
In the New Bilibid Prisons alone, jails made to detain 6,435 inmates now have over 30,000 PDLs either crowding inside or spilling over to the facility’s open-air basketball court, Yamsuan noted.
City jails are no better, Yamsuan said, as PDLs resort to adopt unorthodox sleeping arrangements, such as rotating shifts for sleeping, sleeping on the steps of staircases, or even making improvised hammocks.
Yamsuan pointed out that the “nation’s correctional facilities, which are meant to be places of rehabilitation and transformation, have instead become breeding grounds for despair and recidivism.”
Iloilo 3rd District Rep. Lorenz Defensor and Zamboanga Sibugay 1st District Rep. Wilter Palma, who are both Deputy Majority leaders; ACT TEACHERS Partylist Rep, France Castro and GABRIELA Partylist Rep. Arlene Brosas, both from the Makabayan bloc and members of the minority, expressed support for Yamsuan’s call.
Yamsuan noted that the crisis in the country’s correctional system has spawned a multitude of problems, such as malnutrition and poor health among PDLs because jails supervised by both the BJMP and BuCor were allocated only P70 and P15 for the daily food and medical allowance, respectively, of each PDL.
Another grave concern exposed by Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla is the corruption inside Bilibid, where some jail guards have set up a lucrative business of charging 20 percent commission for every peso sent to PDLs by their friends or relatives, Yamsuan said.
“It is easy to blame prison officials for the continuing deterioration of our correctional institutions. But they themselves are fighting hard to survive in a fragmented system riddled with red tape—a system that lacks the manpower and resources to effectively manage PDLs and provide them humane living conditions,” he said.
Yamsuan has filed House Bill 8672, which aims to unify the country’s fragmented correctional system by creating a Department of Corrections and Jail Management (DCJM).
With President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., steering the country towards a “Bagong Pilipinas,” Yamsuan said a transformative mindset is needed in governance, “for indeed, we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.”
“Sabi ko nga po sa ating mga kaibigan sa public service, if we are to make something viral, let us make good governance viral,” he added. “Our Bagong Pilipinas should ensure that no one is left behind, including Persons Deprived of Liberty. We should give them a genuine chance to rebuild their lives.”