PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan—The sprawling penal colony here requires over 1,000 additional security personnel to meet the standard security muscle, said a senior official of the penitentiary. The existing size of the security in charge of the 26,000-hectare penal colony is relatively too small for its population of inmates, said Jacinto R. Regal, who is Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm supervisor. The vast penitentiary is subdivided into four colonies: Central (14,700 hectares), Santa Lucia (9,685 hectares), Montible (8,000 hectares), and Inagawan (13,000 hectares). It has also three security compounds—the minimum, medium, and maximum, Regal said.
The number of inmates is counted every six hours. The total number of inmates is 3,170, all male, who populate all the four colonies, he said.
“It is, however, relatively too big for the existing size of the security personnel,” he said.
The penitentiary’s security is manned by only 120 prison guards, out of the total 270 employees who work in its different offices, Regal said. Under Republic Act (RA) 10575, or “The Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013,” if the target ratio of prison guard to inmate is one to seven, Iwahig will require more than 1,000 new men, he said.
The additional security strength may be acquired by installment, who may be hired by batch per year, until such time the required total number is reached, Regal said.
RA 10575, Section 2, states that “the State shall provide for the modernization, professionalization and restructuring of the Bureau of Corrections [BuCor] by upgrading its facilities, increasing the number of its personnel, upgrading the level of qualifications of their personnel and standardizing their base pay, retirement and other benefits.”
“So far our security is getting better, owing to the BuCor modernization act,” he said.
“In accordance, we have upgraded our security measures.”
The policies and regulations relative to the penitentiary modernization act are also increasingly introduced to bind the inmates, Regal said.
Foreseeing their possible return to mainstream society, the penal colony equips the inmates with livelihood and employable skills under the national penitentiary modernization program, he said.
Skills include handicraft making, soup-making, practical electrical training, basic automotive mechanics, poultry and hog raising, conventional agriculture, and organic farming. The trainings equip the inmates with technical know-how and skills they may need once reintegrated with the mainstream society, Regal said.
“With the technical knowledge and skills they learn, the inmates are employable when they reintegrate in the free society,” he said.
Regal said it has been long since he heard of a former prisoner in Iwahig committing another criminal offense in mainstream society after regaining liberty. The twin objectives of the BuCor are the safekeeping and reformation of the offenders, he said.
The Iwahig penal colony was established in Palawan, an island province southwestern part of the Philippines, during the American occupation of the Philippines, on November 16, 1904. It consists of rainforest, rice fields, pastures, vegetable plots, fish ponds and parks.