Despite the installation of signal jammers and the restrictions amidst the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) can still communicate with their loved ones.
In a statement, DPPF said that “Regional Superintendent Julie May C. Taguiam gives PDLs the privilege to communicate or correspond with persons or organizations through the ‘Tawag Kalinga Program’ of Inmate Visitation Services Unit.”
Last March, DPPF started installing signal jammers in the reservation to prevent PDLs from using mobile telephones and other gadgets.
It said that signal jammers were put up to ensure that PDLs “are completely incapacitated from further committing criminal acts, and have been totally cut off from their criminal networks or contacts in the free society while serving sentence at BuCor (Bureau of Corrections), and to ultimately protect the society against crime.”
“To effectively disable and disrupt the operation of illegal mobile phones from receiving and transmitting signals, the installation of 10 units signal jammer has been successfully deliberated within the prison camps…,” it said.
“A preventive maintenance program for signal jammer will also be implemented by the Communications/Tactical Operations Section (CTOS)/Information and Communications Technology Section (ICTS) to continuously preserve its efficiency and to reduce chances of equipment breakdowns,” it added.