BJMP lauded for 307 drug-free jails in less than a year
Published Aug 7, 2018 11:42 am
By Chito Chavez
The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) earned praise for the 307 jails it made drug-free in less than a year of its intensified internal cleansing campaign.
DILG officer-in-charge Eduardo M. Año
(DILG / MANILA BULLETIN) With this remarkable feat, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) officer-in-charge (OIC) Eduardo M. Año cited the BJMP for its great stride in ensuring that the country’s jails under its care are free from illegal drugs in line with President Duterte's campaign to rid the country, including those behind bars, of the influence of illegal drugs. "I commend BJMP for their admirable accomplishment. The proliferation of illegal drugs in hundreds of prisons in the country has been an endemic issue which entails a lot of work and political will and for BJMP to produce positive output in less than a year, in a matter of months, is truly worth praising," said Año. "As one of the attached agencies of DILG, we are extremely satisfied with the progress BJMP was able to accomplish in the past months," he added. Through the leadership of BJMP chief Deogracias Tapayan, Año cited the increase of 74.51 percent of jails manned by BJMP that are now drug-free, a far cry from 68 jail facilities certified by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as "clean of illegal drugs" early this year. "Numbers cannot lie. From 68 early this year, we now have 307 drug-free jails which can only be attributed to the relentless campaign of BJMP to keep up with the President's vision of a country free from illegal-drugs," he said. Año explained that for a jail facility to be marked as drug-free, it has to comply with the standards and requirements set by agencies such as PDEA and the Philippine National Police (PNP). "Eight regions have been declared as drug-free using the standard set by PDEA and PNP. All these regions are 100 percent compliant meaning they were able to meet the very strenuous requisites," he added. BJMP spokesman Senior Inspector Xavier Sold said the conduct of random-drug tests among inmates and jail personnel, jail-based intervention program on anti-illegal drugs, and absence of any illegal drugs paraphernalia in the facility are some of the parameters used to declare a jail facility drug-free. He noted that Tapayan also spearheads the BJMP project Personal Progressive Cleansing and Build-up, Recruitment and Revamped Training and Reorientation, Rehabilitation of Facilities, Safekeeping and Development of Persons Deprived of Liberty, and Decongested De-radicalized drug facilities. A memorandum of agreement (MOA) between PDEA and BJMP was also inked last November for the conduct of regular drug-clearing operations in all city and municipal jails in the country. (Chito Chavez)
DILG officer-in-charge Eduardo M. Año(DILG / MANILA BULLETIN) With this remarkable feat, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) officer-in-charge (OIC) Eduardo M. Año cited the BJMP for its great stride in ensuring that the country’s jails under its care are free from illegal drugs in line with President Duterte's campaign to rid the country, including those behind bars, of the influence of illegal drugs. "I commend BJMP for their admirable accomplishment. The proliferation of illegal drugs in hundreds of prisons in the country has been an endemic issue which entails a lot of work and political will and for BJMP to produce positive output in less than a year, in a matter of months, is truly worth praising," said Año. "As one of the attached agencies of DILG, we are extremely satisfied with the progress BJMP was able to accomplish in the past months," he added. Through the leadership of BJMP chief Deogracias Tapayan, Año cited the increase of 74.51 percent of jails manned by BJMP that are now drug-free, a far cry from 68 jail facilities certified by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) as "clean of illegal drugs" early this year. "Numbers cannot lie. From 68 early this year, we now have 307 drug-free jails which can only be attributed to the relentless campaign of BJMP to keep up with the President's vision of a country free from illegal-drugs," he said. Año explained that for a jail facility to be marked as drug-free, it has to comply with the standards and requirements set by agencies such as PDEA and the Philippine National Police (PNP). "Eight regions have been declared as drug-free using the standard set by PDEA and PNP. All these regions are 100 percent compliant meaning they were able to meet the very strenuous requisites," he added. BJMP spokesman Senior Inspector Xavier Sold said the conduct of random-drug tests among inmates and jail personnel, jail-based intervention program on anti-illegal drugs, and absence of any illegal drugs paraphernalia in the facility are some of the parameters used to declare a jail facility drug-free. He noted that Tapayan also spearheads the BJMP project Personal Progressive Cleansing and Build-up, Recruitment and Revamped Training and Reorientation, Rehabilitation of Facilities, Safekeeping and Development of Persons Deprived of Liberty, and Decongested De-radicalized drug facilities. A memorandum of agreement (MOA) between PDEA and BJMP was also inked last November for the conduct of regular drug-clearing operations in all city and municipal jails in the country. (Chito Chavez)