“…the inside of the facility did not feel and look like a prison but more of a community with its own set of rules”
The New Bilibid Prison over the years has acquired an unsavory and notorious reputation.
By all accounts, it has become a center of criminal activities like the illegal drug trade and murder for hire.
It has gotten so scandalous that the government needs to put a stop to it.
It is again the setting of another criminal drama that is playing out in the media due to the murder of radio personality Percival Mabasa, better known as Percy Lapid.
If the allegations are true, it seems the order to eliminate Lapid may have come inside the penitentiary like in many reported previous cases.
Because of the overcrowding in what was then the Old Bilibid Prison in Manila, the Commonwealth government in 1936 developed a new facility to be located far from the madding crowd to house the ever increasing prison population.
The site chosen was a 551-hectare area in what is now the City of Muntinglupa which was at that time considered remote.
Construction was first started on the New Bilibid Prison in 1936 and was first occupied in 1940.
The new penitentiary was built to accommodate about 6,700 inmates.
That number as we know has been breached long time ago.
Today, the facility is holding almost 29,000 inmates and is bursting at the seams.
Although not much government development has been undertaken since the original structure was built, this gives us an idea why the penitentiary became what it is today. Rich inmates, for instance, are able to build their own bungalows complete with air conditioning units with inmates serving them.
A recording studio was even constructed at one time because an inmate wanted to record some songs.
We know of these things due to the many shakedowns that the BUCOR had been conducting like the recent display of 1,000 cans of beer allegedly being sold for P1, 000 each.
I also remember one shakedown wherein more than a million in local currency was confiscated including, if I remember correctly, some firearms.
As someone who did a documentary on the facility once quipped, the inside of the facility did not feel and look like a prison but more of a community with its own set of rules.
There is also a thriving underground economy inside the penitentiary which some say amounts to over P100 million and is the source of a lot of corruption in the BUCOR. These things alone should drive the government to appropriate funds for a new and modern prison facility.
With the way it stands right now, it would be extremely difficult for any BUCOR Chief to be able to do anything unless a completely new and modern facility which will incorporate new security designs is built so that all inmates will be housed in prison cells.
Only then can we see a semblance of prison life as we know it and rehabilitation undertaken the way it should be.
Anything less than that will not work regardless of who is the BUCOR Chief.
Come to think of it, it is shocking that given all the things that have been going on in that facility over the past two decades, the government has not tried new ideas other than replace the BUCOR Chief.
In that sense, the government should shoulder part of the blame with what has been going on there.
Even now that the new DOJ Secretary seems to be pushing for the construction of a new facility, there is not much enthusiasm.
I read somewhere that the DOJ would need about P4 billion to start the construction of a new penitentiary somewhere in Nueva Ecija.
This is perhaps because the original 551-hectare reservation is now all built up.
One thing more, it would not be advisable to build the new facility there because there will be many objections from people living near the area because that area where the penitentiary is located is no longer considered remote and is now well developed.
If Nueva Ecija will not go thru, maybe it could be done in one of the six penal colonies still controlled by the DOJ whose area I understand remains sizable.
In this particular situation, the more remote the facility, the better.
That way, control can be better instituted.
Also, the DOJ might decide to construct three national penitentiaries so that all inmates will not be held in just one facility like the way it is done now but construct in the three major island groups.
Mindanao inmates can be held in Mindanao; Visayan and Luzon inmates can be held in the island where they come from.
That way, it will be easier for everyone.
It makes a lot of sense to build a new penitentiary.
The earlier it is done the better if the government wants to stop the problem that has been going on in the New Bilibid Prison.
Otherwise, the problems there will simply continue and confound every new administration.
