Proposed NCR Integrated Jail Facility in San Mateo

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Single jail proposed in San Mateo

By: Jaime Pilapil
Manila Standard Today
January 20, 2006 Friday

To solve the problem of congestion and jailbreaks in prisons, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) is envisioning a centralized Metro Manila jail facility to be built in San Mateo, Rizal.No less than Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes and current BJMP chief Director Arturo Alit are amenable to the proposed centralized jail facility that will house into one compound the 21 jails spread around the metropolis.

Reyes said the increasing number of inmates has resulted in problems such as the outbreak of diseases and inhumane living conditions in BJMP prisons. “Without doubt, this problem should be immediately attended to.”

Not all jails in the country are under the BJMP. Only jails categorized as district, city and municipal are under the agency. Provincial jails are supervised by the Office of the Governor, while prisons like the New Bilibid are under the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

Suspected criminals awaiting court sentences are housed in BJMP jails, while those already convicted are housed in BuCor facilities.

BJMP Jail Senior Insp. Analiza Pama Bides said their office is just waiting for a presidential proclamation that will award the property in San Mateo to the agency before beginning the proposed project in the town.

She added that there are 1,159 prisons in the country today, including those managed by BJMP. According to her, there is a strong possibility that massive jailbreaks might occur in the future if the problem of congestion is not addressed.

In Metro Manila alone, the jail population rose by 235 percent. Reyes said that with an average annual increase of 17 percent, the number of inmates is expected to rise to 87,000 in 10 years. Figures for 2003 reveal that there are 19,705 inmates in prisons.

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Metro jail to rise in San Mateo

By: Florante S. Solmerin
Manila Standard Today
Tuesday, November 7, 2006

After the announced transfer of the state penitentiary to Rizal, a detention center is being proposed in San Mateo, according to a town executive.
“Prison officials were here recently to consult with the local government unit regarding the construction of a jail facility in the municipality that could accommodate thousands of prisoners from Metro Manila as well as Rizal province,” said Mayor Ariel Diaz in an interview.

He said the idea is a “welcome development” because of the tax income that would go to the coffers of the first-class municipality.

“But then the national government should consider our concerns such as the traffic problem will worsen; if it [government] wants to construct the facility it should help us widen and repair our roads as well as help us engineer alternate roads,” Diaz said.

Diaz, formerly a vice mayor, assumed the mayorship barely four months ago after the death of Mayor Jose Diaz. The two are not related.

He said the national government should also allot funds for information dissemination on what local officials have already christened as “Metro Manila Jail.”

“There’s already a misconception spreading in town that San Mateo would become the country’s ‘Jail Capital.’ This is not good to hear. It would scare away investors in this first-class municipality,” Diaz said.

Earlier, Malacañan Palace ordered the transfer of the New Bilibid Prison to Barangay Cuyambay, Tanay town.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Executive Order 568 in view of pressing socioeconomic exigencies.

“There is a need to improve, expand and upgrade the facilities of the New Bilibid Prison and at the same time, to relocate it to another site for practical purposes, owing to the growing number of residential communities around the penal institution and the more strategic or higher developmental use planned by the government for its current site,” she said.

She instructed the Department of Justice to carry out the order.

In Proclamation 1158, Mrs. Arroyo declared that the state-owned 300-hectare lot in Barangay Cuyambay as NBP site, along with then field office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Calabarzon region.

She also signed Proclamation 1159 declaring the present 366.7-hectare NBP site as a socialized housing area.

In June, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno cited an estimate of the bureau which projected jail crowd to approach 89,000 in 2008; 101,350 in 2009 and 114,930 in 2010.

“This year alone, the inmate population in all municipal city and district jails nationwide could reach 69,500, of which 22,000 or over a third come from Metro Manila,” Puno said.

“We cannot understate the urgency of addressing the worsening problem of overcrowding and poor living conditions in our jails,” Puno said.

“A pending bill in Congress that seeks to establish an integrated jail system for Metro Manila and other highly urbanized cities in the country would resolve this lingering problem of overcapacity that could later become a serious security concern if left unchecked.”

He was referring to House Bill 3079, filed by Rep. Amado Espino Jr., on the setting up of hospitals and courtrooms in these compounds.

“The establishment of these integrated jail facilities would lead to more humane living conditions for inmates, who currently subsist on only P40 a day, and better security arrangements as well, especially now when the BJMP has an acute shortage of prison vans to transport inmates to court hearings,” Puno said.

If constructed, the San Mateo jail would occupy at least 94 hectares in Barangay Pintong Bocaoe.

“It would be a gigantic one because facility will house inmates from Metro Manila’s cities and towns including inmates from the 15 towns of Rizal province. As we were initially briefed by prison officials the facility would have its own courthouses at the center of the facility. Each city and town would have its own detention cells inside the facility. We also learned that the location would also be site of housing projects for jail employees,” Diaz said.

He clarified that San Mateo would not be host to the social misfits.

“The hardened criminals, or the convicted, are to be sent to the NBP in Tanay,” he said.

Diaz could not estimate how much tax money his town would make out of the facility.

San Mateo has a yearly income of P45 million and a P85-million Internal Revenue Allotment.

[banalbanal]

Ang dapat pagtuunan ng gobyerno ay kung papaano masusugpo ang kriminalidad at iyan ay mangyayari lamang sa pakikipagtulungan ng mamamayan sa PNP upang masugpo ito, sa pamamagitan ng pagbibigay ng mga impormasyon sa maga ilegal na aktibidades sa kani-kanilang lugar. At kung mangyari ito ay luluwag na angmmga kulungan sa bansa.