Nine more persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), who have served their prison terms, were released from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City last Thursday, July 21.
Last July 5, the NBP freed 99 PDLs who have been granted parole, have expired jail terms or have been acquitted of their criminal charges.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla had earlier said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has adopted several measures to reduce drastically the 330 percent congestion rate in prison facilities under the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
One of the measures is the digitation of the prison records, known as carpeta, for faster determination of who among the thousands of PDLs are qualified for immediate release.
Remulla lamented that carpetas remain to be written manually and have yet to be fully digitized and made available online for government agencies in need of the prison records.
He said he had met with the officials of both the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP) and the Parole and Probation Administration (PPA) to see what can be done to speed up the release of qualified prisoners.
He also said he had met with Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief Persida V. Rueda-Acosta on the possibility of helping out the BPP and the PPA.