The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday said decongestion of the New Bilibid Prison and other jail facilities operated by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) across the country will be a continuing process, with 300 more prisoners, also called persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) due for clemency by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“Jail decongestion was the first thing that the Secretary has look into and we already released over 400 persons deprived of liberty. This is a continuing process, every month, we will release deserving PDLs,” DOJ spokesman Jose Dominic Clavano said in a media briefing.
Clavano said apart from jail decongestion, the “war’ against online sexual abuse of minors was among the main accomplishments of the DOJ in the first 100 days of the Marcos administration.
Clavano said Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has made the two issues among his priority since assuming the post on July 1. Remulla vowed to decongest jails in his first 100 days in office, saying he was asking for 300 to 500 carpetas, or the inmates’ record, a week from the BuCor so they can process who among the inmates were already eligible for release.
Last month, 371 inmates in the national penitentiary, Correctional Institute for Women and other BuCor-operated prisons gained their freedom after completing their sentence or having been pardoned or paroled.
Earlier, Remulla said the NBP and other BuCor-operated prison facilities registered a 330 percent congestion rate.
Built in 1940 for a maximum of 6,000 prisoners, the national penitentiary currently houses 28, 900 inmates, including those being held at the maximum security compound.
The DOJ is targeting to release over 5, 000 PDLs by June 2023.
Part of the decongestion program, Clavano said, was the construction of a maximum security prison facility in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro to house inmates convicted of heinous crimes.
As to the war against online sexual abuse and exploitation of children (OSAEC), Clavano said the DOJ have further strengthened the fight, especially with Remulla’s declaration of “war’ against those involved in the said cases.
“We have intensified the campaign against online sexual abuse and exploitation of children, so Secretary Remulla has declared war on it,” he added.
Last August, Remulla warned Internet Service Providers (ISPs) that if they refused to cooperate in tracking down sexual abusers, particularly of minors, the government may go after and sue them.
Remulla said that ISPs should perform its obligations under Republic Act 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 requiring them to install a software that will block access to or transmittal of any form of child pornography in the internet.
The said law also requires ISPs to notify authorities within seven days from discovery that any form of child pornography is being committed using their servers or facilities.
The DOJ chief, who is also the chairman of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), said the National Telecommunications Commission can also issue fines on a daily basis for non-compliance and non-cooperation.
The country’s Special Envoy to the United Nations Children’s Fund Nikki Teodoro said that the country has become “number one for child trafficking, and online pornography” after cases of child exploitation rose by over 280 percent this year.
The Philippines has retained its Tier 1 ranking in the 2022 US State Department Trafficking in Persons report for its effort to eliminate human trafficking and online sexual exploitation of children but the report said more can and should be done.
Last year, the DOJ reported that more than 370 children who are victims of online sexual abuse and exploitation were rescued by the authorities even amid the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also led to the arrest of 74 suspected traffickers.
Clavano said the DOJ will work doubly hard to go after OSAEC perpetrators.
“We are definitely working hard to make sure that the DOJ is here to give justice to every Filipino,” he said.
Another area where the DOJ, he added, made major strides is in addressing the backlog in the resolution of appeals cases, adding that since July 1, the department has registered “zero backlog” in the said area.
“We still have five years and nine months to show to the entire Philippines what we can do,” he added.
At the same time, he said the DOJ’s work is not only the prosecution of cases but also to be forward looking.
“Not only do we prosecute cases we also want to be forward looking. Ang trabaho ng DOJ ay mahalaga din sa pag unlad ng ekonomiya,’ he added.
Earlier, Remulla vowed that the DOJ will never allow itself to be used to go after personal or vested interests.