Residents demolished a wall built on a road leading to a Department of Justice (DOJ) housing project inside the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) Reservation in Bgy. Poblacion, Muntinlupa.
On Friday night, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) erected a concrete wall on a road that served as a main access point to the city proper of residents of the DOJ’s Katarungan Village 1 and 2, and students and teachers of Muntinlupa National High School-Main and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa, which are adjacent to the village.
Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon went to the area and talked to BuCor personnel assigned to the new wall.
In a statement, Councilor Raul Corro, majority floor leader of the City Council and a resident of Katarungan Village 1, said, "Ngayong gabi, nagulat ang mga residente ng Katarungan Village 1 and 2, mga mag-aaral, guro at iba pang school officials ng PLMun at MNHS, ang Barangay Poblacion at ang City Government ng Muntinlupa sa ginawang biglaang road closure sa daanan papuntang village at mga nasabing paaralan.”
He added, “Ito ay ginawa ng pamunuan ng BUCOR na walang prior consultation at coordination sa Homeowners' Association ng Katarungan Village 1 and 2, sa Barangay Officials ng Poblacion at sa City Government.”
Before this, In March, BuCor, citing security reasons, built a wall on Insular Prison Road in NBP closing the main access point of the residents of the government’s Southville 3 housing project to the city proper.
In a statement issued last Nov. 7, Biazon said he sent a letter to President Rodrigo Duterte regarding the closure of the road leading to the Southville 3 housing project.
Malacañang referred the letter to the DOJ, which told Biazon that because of Republic Act 10575, or the BuCor Modernization Law, BuCor has the “absolute authority” in the supervision of lands it owns.
He filed a resolution with the House of Representatives, which held a committee hearing about the issue.
“Bagaman patuloy ang usapin na iyan, mayroon naman kaming hakbang na ginawa para masolusyonan ang problema at yan ay ang pagpapagawa ng alternate road na magiging koneksyon ng NHA Southville sa Katihan, Poblacion na hindi na dadaan malapit sa Maximum at Medium Security Compound. Ito ay isang compromise na makakamit ang layunin ng BuCor at maitataguyod ang kapakanan ng mga taga NHA Southville,” said Biazon.
Corro said he hopes that President Duterte will respond to the call of the Muntinlupa City government to reopen the roads for the sake of affected residents.
After the Insular Prison Road closure, Mayor Jaime Fresnedi sent a letter to BuCor Director General Gerald Bantag to appeal to his “sense of compassion and soundness of reason in reconsidering your decision to what appears to us as a permanent closure of the portion of road that connects the said community to the rest of Muntinlupa.”
The mayor said BuCor should recognize “the right of the people to freely access its roads and other alleys especially when through the passing of time, right of way of residents of Southville 3 has already been cemented and established.”
In his reply to Fresnedi last March, Bantag said part of the safekeeping of prisoners “is security which ensures that inmates are completely incapacitated from further committing criminal acts, and have been totally cut off from their criminal networks (or contact in the free society).”
“Security also includes protection against illegal organized armed groups which have the capacity of launching an attack on any prison camp of the national penitentiary to rescue their convicted comrade or forcibly amass firearms issued to Corrections Officers,” he added.
He said allowing the use of the road “puts the safety and well-being of the public in danger. It is a wrong public policy to continue a dangerous practice of letting the public pass through the middle of a supposedly high security risk prison compound.”
According to Bantag, “from September 2019 to February 2021, most of the cases of throwing of contrabands inside the security camp had been traced from elements coming from NHA Southville 3.”
“Further, closing of the road reduced greatly on the movement of people inside the compound which is definitely helping the anti-COVID efforts of the government,” he said.
Bantag said that BuCor “only temporarily closed the portion of the road which will traverse the side of the Maximum Security Compound but a larger portion of its road is still open and can be freely used by our countrymen.”