The House Committee on Justice has endorsed the passage of a bill for the segregation of high-level convicts from other prisoners through the establishment of a separate facility for the former.

Majority Leader and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, one of the principal authors of the bill, said heinous crime offenders would be better detained in a separate prison facility "within a military establishment or an island separate in the mainland."

Chaired by Leyte Rep. Vicente “Ching” Veloso, the House panel has approved the consolidated bill containing provisions of three legislative versions filed in the Lower House.

Aside from Romualdez, other authors of the measure are Reps. LRay Villafuerte (2nd District, Camarines Sur) and Teodorico Haresco (2nd District, Aklan).

To be known by its title “Separate Facility for High-Level Offenders Act, House Bill 10355 has been forwarded to the Committee on Rules which will schedule the measure for plenary deliberations when regular session resumes next month.

Under the proposal of the authors, offenders of heinous crimes will be transferred to prison facilities to be constructed for this purpose.

The secretary of justice is given the authority to choose a suitable location for the said facility.

Romualdez said putting up a separate facility for prisoners convicted of heinous crimes and high-level drug offenses has become vital as there has been a “failure of the present treatment program and detention security measures of the Bureau of Corrections.”

The House official cited reports of a series of inspections and raids in the premises of the New Bilibid Prisons that have yielded contraband items, including drugs.

“These incidents prove that convicted drug lords could continue their illegla drug business inside the premises of the national penitentiary, probably with the aid of regular inmates with whom they are commingled,” said Romualdez.

Villafuerte cited similar reasons as he cited the case of drug convict Rustico Ygot who was able to carry out illegal drug operations in Cebu while serving at the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City.

“The passage of this bill aims to put an end to the nefarious activities of drug offenders and to strengthen the nation’s war on drugs,” said Villafuerte.

In filing HB 4461, Haresco enumerated the crimes of convicts who should be held in separate prison facility. These are treason, parricide, murder, infanticide, kidnapping and serious illegal detention. destructive arson, rape and serious drug offenses, among others.

“These prisoners should not be mixed with other inmates to ensure that those convicted of heinous crimes will not influence those who did not commit crimes as grave as they did,” explained Haresco.