Despite COVID, BuCor to pursue mandate efficiently – Dir. Bantag

Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gerald Q. Bantag on Monday, Nov. 8, vowed to pursue the bureau’s mandate of managing efficiently its seven prison facilities nationwide despite the challenges post by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
“Hindi naging biro ang hinaharap nating pagsubok sa taong ito. Hindi lingid sa kaalaman ng lahat ang hamon ng pandemya (It is no joke the difficulties we endure this year. It is not unknown to all the challenges that are posed by the pandemic,” Bantag said in his video message on the occasion of the BuCor’s 116th founding anniversary.
“Ngunit pinatunayan naming lahat na patuloy ang aming pagtaguyod sa mandato ng ating institusyon (But we were able to prove that we can uphold the mandate of the institution),” he stressed.
Persons convicted by the courts to serve jail terms of three years or more are kept at BuCor’s prison facilities.
These facilities are the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF), Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (IPPF) in Palawan, San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm (SRPPF) in Zamboanga, Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm (SPPF) in Occidental Mindoro, and the Leyte Regional Prison (LRP).
BuCor was established on Nov. 1, 1905 and was initially called the Bureau of Prisons under the Department of Public Instruction through Reorganization Act 1407 of the Philippine Commission. It was later transferred to the Department of Justice.
The Bureau of Prisons was later renamed Bureau of Corrections under Section 26 of the Administrative Code of 1987 issued on Nov. 23, 1989 under Proclamation No. 495 of then President Corazon C. Aquino.
On May 24, 2013, then President Benigno Simeon Aquino III signed into Law Republic Act No. 10575, the Bureau of Corrections Act, which mandated the modernization, professionalization and restructuring of the agency.
Todate, there are more than 48,500 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) in BuCor’s seven prison facilities.