Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. fully supports the proposed law that would mandate all prison facilities to provide agricultural livelihood programs for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).

Catapang said the proposed legislation  can ensure “food security and sustainability not only for our PDLs but also for those living near our operating prison and penal farms nationwide.”

Benguet Rep. Eric Go Yap and Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte had filed House Bill No. 3541 that would require all penal institutions to have areas suitable for agriculture to implement agricultural livelihood programs for prisoners.

In a statement, BuCor noted that the two legislators said in their explanatory note that “food security must be afforded not just to the free folk but also to those in the penitentiary institutions who likewise have the right to proper sustenance but due to budget constraints and the growing number of inmates, penal institutions continue to struggle with providing food for all the prisoners.”

“Under this bill the chosen prisoners shall work on a voluntary basis only and will be paid the minimum wage rate that is prevailing in the area where the penal institution is located. The compensation shall be paid from the Prison Agriculture Revolving Fund which will be established in every penal institution implementing the agricultural program where the earnings derived from the program will be kept,” BuCor said. 

It also said that "the funds, under the bill shall be exclusively and primarily used for payment of wages of inmates who work in the prison farm and acquisition of agricultural inputs, seeds and fertilizers and other provisions for farming and at the end of the year, 50 percent of the revolving fund shall be given as dividends to all inmates who participated in the agricultural program, 20 percent shall be utilized for the improvement of the penal or prison facility and the remaining 30 percent shall be the start-up funds for the succeeding year."

Catapang said that BuCor already has an ongoing pilot agricultural project at the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (IPPF) in Palawan under the Reformation Initiative for Sustainable Environment (RISE) for Food Security of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Agriculture (DA).

He said "there is a need to institutionalize this program to be able to implement it nationwide and for continuity.”

Earlier, the DA said that initial harvest from the IPPF agricultural project is expected in December.

“The 4.5-hectare demo farm in Iwahig is expected to yield 96.8 metric tons of rice, watermelon, melon, eggplant, tomatoes, red chili pepper, pole sitao, cucumber, okra, squash, patola, ampalaya, and sweet corn in December with an estimated gross income of P7.3 million. Planting season was from August to September,” BuCor said.

“Proceeds from the farm will be used by the BuCor to expand its agricultural development activities by using idle lands to support government’s food security campaign,” it added.