The Department of Justice (DOJ) has recommended to Malacanang the grant of executive clemency to over 1,000 inmates in various prison facilities under the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
DOJ spokesman Jose Dominic Clavano said the DOJ urged the Office of the Executive Secretary to hasten the approval of the clemency that already has the imprimatur of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Clavano said the number of prisoners recommended for presidential pardon included the more than 300 names of those submitted to Malacañang last September.
“We already followed it up with Executive Secretary Bersamin and we told him that since it had the support of President Bongbong Marcos to expedite the release of the executive clemency, including the one we recommended last September,” Clavano added.
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 program to decongest the country’s prison facilities, particularly the New Bil bid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
The NBP, the country’s main penitentiary originally built for 6,345 prisoners when it was constructed in 1940, had a total inmate population of 29,204 as of October 2022.
Other prison facilities under the BuCor’s control include the Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Iwahig Pri on 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 were also experiencing similar congestion problems.
Remulla has committed to releasing up to 5, 000 elderly and sickly inmates, as well as those who have completed their maximum sentence by June 2023.
BuCor office3r-in-charge Gregorio Catapang earlier said they were mulling 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.
The DOJ official also said that 500 more inmates who were qualified to be released will gain 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.
Some 4, 000 prisoners have been set free under the Marcos administration. In a related development, Remulla told reporters that the construction of a “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 announcement following Catapang’s preliminary presentation of Supermax’s design on Monday.
The projected facility could accommodate around 2,500 inmates and would cost around P6 billion, according to Remulla.
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 added.
Remulla earlier said they are planning to transfer inmates currently detained at the New Bilibid Prison’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.
