The Supreme Court (SC) has extended until September 30 the ban on the transfer of prisoners from one detention facility to another in a move to curtail the spread of COVID-19 among persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
In a circular issued by Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez, banned are the transfers of suspected criminal offenders who are now in the detention facilities of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to the jails managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
Also banned are the transfers of convicted PDLs from BJMP jails to the facilities of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) like the National Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City.
Marquez said the ban stays until September 30 “considering that the country remains to be in different levels of community quarantine due to COVID-19 pandemic.”
The original circular on the ban was issued after Local Government Secretary Eduardo M. Ano requested the SC “that the issuance of commitment orders (to the facilities of the BJMP be temporarily suspended… to prevent the further contamination (of COVID-19) among PDLs in all jail units nationwide.”
Then Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Director General Archie Francisco F. Gamboa, on the other hand, issued an undertaking that “the PNP can, in the meantime, accommodate newly arrested PDLs.”
The ban on the transfer of PDLs from BJMP to BuCor facilities was requested by BuCor Director General Gerald Q. Bantag.
Published reports stated that there are more than 215,000 PDLs in 933 detention centers nationwide.
Jails managed by the BuCor have more than 36,900 prisoners in seven penal colonies, while about 21,000 inmates are detained at the NBP.