THE Bureau of Corrections, or BuCor, reports that inmate congestion in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City has been reduced from 300 percent to 200 percent.
At first glance, bringing down the congestion rate hardly seems an accomplishment. About 21,000 prisoners still pack the facility that was originally built in 1940 to hold 3,000. Later improvements expanded the capacity to 6,345 inmates.
The reduction, however, is significant, when one considers the fact that in June 2023, Bilibid housed 30,701 prisoners, a staggering 477 percent more than normal capacity.
Overcrowding has been a festering issue that has confronted prison authorities for decades. Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima, who was once justice secretary, looked at severe congestion as “the root cause of the many ills besetting our correctional system, such as prison-based criminality, recidivism, spread of contagious diseases and, worse, deaths.”
In his 2013 paper, “Understanding the Conditions of New Bilibid Prison: Implications for Integrated Reforms,” Raymund Narag, an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University, exposed Bilibid’s “culture of the penal institution” where “prison officers and inmates can generate social and political power... a hierarchy of status in the prison community.”
At the top of the hierarchy are the VIP, or “Very Important Preso” — convicts, whose wealth and influence have allowed them to wield power. Most of the VIPs are drug lords, whose cells have been converted into luxury suites.
Narag highlighted the critical shortage of prison guards, and how it spawned a system of “shared governance” with inmate gangs like Sigue Sigue Sputnik and OXO to help maintain order inside the facility.
Government efforts to dismantle Bilibid’s cabal lacked initiative and resolve. Every so often, prison authorities would stage “surprise” raids of cells and seize the usual cache of drugs, banned cell phones and homemade weapons. The contraband are put on display mainly for media consumption. The empire, meanwhile, remains unscathed.
The murder of broadcaster Percy Mabasa put Bilibid under intense public scrutiny after it was found that the killing was planned inside the prison and carried out by a group of inmates.
The case took an even more intriguing turn after the prisoner who helped organize the hit on Mabasa was himself killed inside Bilibid.
A high-level investigation of the Mabasa case resulted in charges being filed against suspended BuCor chief Gerald Bantag. Bantag refused to turn himself in and has been on the run since.
The case also helped activate the government’s plan to close down Bilibid and redistribute its population. Since 2023, BuCor has moved over 13,000 Bilibid prisoners to provincial penal facilities.
The long-term vision is to build a prison in every region, each with an inmate capacity of from 1,000 to 2,000.
By 2028, the transfer shall have been completed, and the Bilibid would be closed down for good.
The next phase is to open Bilibid’s 375.61 hectares for either commercial leasing or joint venture projects.
BuCor Director Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. said turning Bilibid into a commercial center will help fund the bureau’s development and modernization programs.
Achieving an ideal prison reform system is not anchored solely on redistributing the prison population. It requires transitioning to a rehabilitative, human rights-centered approach that considers incarceration as a temporary loss of liberty, not a loss of dignity.
Prison capacity would have to be limited to no more than 500 inmates to prevent the anonymity and gang culture bred by mega-prisons.
Regional facilities must be built near inmates’ home communities to preserve family relationships.
Social experts point out that moving away from purely punitive incarceration does not only benefit the individual prisoner, but strengthens the economy, reinforces public safety and raises the country’s moral standing.
Prisons “that respect rights and focus on rehabilitation mean prisoners are less likely to reoffend — making us all safer,” notes the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The Philippines may be moving toward that ideal. The Marawi City Jail, which was destroyed during the terrorist siege of 2017, has been rebuilt with technical support from the UNODC, and now features a zero-congestion spatial design, an in-prison courtroom and an institutionalized jail-based school.
It’s a start. What it needs is the momentum to keep it going.