THE Department of Justice (DOJ) is pushing for the grant of executive clemency for over 1,000 qualified inmates in various prison facilities under the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
DOJ spokesman Jose Dominic Clavano said the justice department has recently asked the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES) to hasten the approval of the clemency that already has the support of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Clavano said the number includes the more than 300 names of inmates it submitted to Malacañang for clemency in September 2022.
“We made a follow-up with Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and we told him about our desire for the immediate release of the executive clemency that we recommended since September,” Clavano said.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla earlier said he would work for the immediate release of inmates qualified for parole or clemency as part of the government’s measures to decongest the country’s prison facilities, particularly the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
The NBP, the country’s main penitentiary, has a total inmate population of 29,204 as of October 2022, though it had an intended capacity of only 6,345 when it was constructed in 1940.
Other prison facilities under the BuCor’s control include the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Palawan, San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga, Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro, Leyte Regional Prison and the Correctional Institute for Women in Mandaluyong City, which are all experiencing similar congestion problems.
Remulla has committed to releasing up to 5,000 elderly and sick inmates and those who completed their maximum sentence by June 2023.
BuCor Officer-in-Charge Gregorio Catapang earlier said they are mulling over the possibility of asking the President to extend executive clemency to inmates 70 years old and above to help decongest the country’s prison facilities.
Meanwhile, Clavano said 500 more inmates who were qualified to be released would regain likely their freedom on January 23.
It would be the largest batch to be released since the DOJ and BuCor started the monthly release of qualified inmates.
The DOJ and BuCor had already released almost 4,000 inmates under the Marcos administration.
In a related development, Remulla told reporters on Monday that the construction of the Supermax prison facility in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, which will house prisoners convicted of heinous crimes is likely to start this year.
The DOJ chief made the pronouncement after Catapang made a preliminary presentation of Supermax’s design on Monday.
The Supermax facility could accommodate around 2,500 inmates and would cost around P6 billion, according to Remulla.
“We call it Supermax prison, Supermax for those convicted of heinous crimes,” Remulla said.
Asked when the construction would start, Remulla said they are still finalizing the design of the facility.
“It will happen in due time, hopefully this year,” he said.
Remulla earlier said they are planning to transfer inmates currently detained at the NBP’s maximum-security compound to Sablayan, the medium security prison to Tanay, Rizal, and the minimum-security prison to Fort Magsaysay in Palayan City, Nueva Ecija.
He also said regional prisons would be built in the next three or four years to do away with the current mega-prison system by 2028.