A total of 2,683 out of the 33,409 registered persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) voters under the custody of the Bureau Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) will cast their votes outside their jails on May 9.
BJMP spokesperson Jail Supt. Xavier Solda said that most of the PDLs, a total of 30,726, will vote ‘onsite’ or in the special polling precincts of their jai facilities.
He pointed out that the PDLs voting ‘offsite’ will be escorted by the BJMP personnel where they will be guided to the special lanes designated for them in the polling places.
Solda explained that the PDLs’ voting outside the jail facilities is covered by the appropriate court order.
He added that officials of the Commission on Election (Comelec) will supervise the voting process of the PDLs inside the BJMP jail facilities.
To ensure the PDLs’ orderly offsite voting process, Solda noted that the BJMP had ‘a run-through’ in the polling places where the inmates will proceed.
In the BJMP facilities, Solda said that concerned government agencies like the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will be deployed to augment the bureau’s ‘security requirement’ in its jails located in remote and far-flung areas.
The BJMP spokesperson stressed that the conduct of dry-runs, continuous information and education drive to the PDLs and coordination with the Comelec officials in secluded towns were intensified to resolve previous concerns in the past elections and guide the jail personnel for a trouble-free PDL voting exercise.
Meanwhile, Solda also revealed that as of May 7 not even a single BJMP inmate is afflicted with Covid-19 for more than one month now.
So far, Solda pointed out that 127,097 out of the 130,982 PDLs or 97.03 percent are vaccinated against Covid-19 with 122,864 (93.8 percent) fully inoculated.He added that 93,605 PDLs or 71.46 percent already got their booster shots against the virus.
Aside from the Covid-19 vaccine shots, Solda disclosed that the BJMP PDLs also received flu and pneu-mofocal vaccines aside from being provided with their daily vitamin requirements.
Solda appealed to the families of the PDLs voting outside their jail facilities to let them cast their votes without crowding them since non-contact visitations in Alert Level 1 areas will resume after the elections.
He pointed out that electronic visitations are in place for the use of the PDLs’ families.
Right after ‘offsite’ voting in the special lanes of the polling areas, Solda said that the PDLs will immediately be brought back to the BJMP jail facilities. (Chito A. Chavez)