Retired Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Gen. Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. faces a gargantuan task to reform the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) which he now heads as director general.
“I inherited a rotten system, a broken structure, a broken organization and a broken culture,” said Catapang who lamented that the environment at BuCor is far different from the military culture he was used to.
“Kahit saan ka lumingon may problema. ‘Pag tumingin ka sa ganoon, isang katerbang basura. ‘Pag lumingon ka ganyan, ang baho (Everywhere you turn to you find problems. You look at one place, you find a garbage dump. You turn around, you smell the stench),” Catapang said when he first visited BuCor after his appointment as officer-in-charge in October 2022.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. appointed Catapang BuCor director general on March 23, 2023. Catapang replaced then BuCor director general Gerald Q. Bantag who is now facing two murder cases before the trial courts.
BuCor operates and manages the heavily-congested seven prison and penal farms nationwide.
“Paano ka magrereform kung ganoon ang environment (How can you implement reforms in that kind of environment,” Catapang said.
But Catapang vowed that “hangga’t nand’yan ako nakaupo, ituturn around ko ‘yan in five years (while I am there, I will turn this around in five years).”
Barely five months after his appointment, Catapang has already gained inspiration in his new job.
So far, Senator Ronald “Bato” M. dela Rosa, a retired Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and former BuCor director general, had said he had seen noticeable changes at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) where BuCor’s offices are housed.
“Mas malinis ngayon. Mukhang mas maganda ang pagkamanage (It’s cleaner. It’s better managed),” said Dela Rosa.
Catapang also recalled that during his first day in office, he noticed “skinny” PDLs who are apparently “insufficiently fed.”
“Nakalitaw ‘yung mga cheekbones. Tapos ‘pag kinamayan mo, hinawakan mo sa balikat makakapa mo kaagad ang buto. Ibig sabihin malnourished sila (Their cheek bones were showing. When you shake their hands and touch their shoulders, you can immediately feel their bones. They were malnourished),” he recalled.
Instead of asking for more budget for the meals of inmates, Catapang has decided to embark in getting PDLs to produce their own food and at the same time contribute to the country’s food security.
He said that “BuCor can contribute to food security kasi kami lang ang may malalapad na lupa na may tao na pwede magtanim (we have large parcels of land and personnel who can do the planting).”
“Gusto namin magtanim para sa pagkain para self-sustaining. Then that will make us relevant, ‘di ba? Nakakacontribute kami sa food security (We want to plant food so we can be self-sustaining. That will make us relevant, right? We can contribute to food security),” he explained.
Last July 13, the President witnessed the signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) where the BuCor is an attached agency for the Reformation Initiative for Sustainable Environment for Food Security or the DA-DOJ (RISE) Project.
The DA said the project, which was launched Thursday, Aug. 17, by the BuCor at the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, “aims to utilize bureau’s idle lands for agricultural production to support the government’s campaign to boost the country’s food sufficiency levels. It will also engage the PDLs in farm work to reform and prepare them for reintegration into society.”
At the moment, Catapang said that somebody else produces crops in BuCor lands.
He said that BuCor receives P264 million yearly from Tagum Agricultural Development Company (TADECO) for using as a banana plantation 5,000 hectares of the vast land of the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF).
Using the amount as a base figure, Catapang projected that the BuCor could earn P3.1 billion yearly from agriculture if it can establish prison facilities in 12 regions and each could replicate the amount the bureau receives from TADECO.
BuCor has seven prison facilities nationwide. Aside from the NBP – these facilities are the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City; the Iwahig Penal and Prison Farm in Palawan; the Davao Penal and Prison Farm in Davao del Norte; Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog, Leyte; San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm in Zamboanga City; and Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro.
Catapang said the RISE Project is part of BuCor’s Development and Modernization Plan 2023-2028 that has been presented to and approved by the President.
The plan includes shutting down the NBP in Muntinlupa City and transferring all of its detainees to various prison facilities of BuCor.
The 375.61-hectare of NBP’s property will be converted into a government and business hub called the BuCor Global City. “I will be able to raise more or less P300 billion,” Catapang said.
He said that more than 1,000 PDLs at NBP had been transferred to other prison facilities and Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla had ordered a stop to the entry of more prisoners at Bilibid.
NBP will then become a food production terminal and trading posts that will serve as a direct link between farmer-PDLs and buyers.
He also said that NBP will be putting up a waste-to-energy facility, and if the project become successful, it will be replicated in other prison facilities.
As part of BuCor’s development and modernization plan, the bureau will put up regional prisons as mandated by Republic Act (RA) No. 10575, the BuCor Act of 2013, and RA 11928, the Separate Facility for Heinous Crimes Act.
Thus, Catapang said BuCor is eyeing the establishment of prison facilities in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and Regions I, II, V, VII, XII, and XIII. Each facility is expected to house about 2,500 PDLs, he said.
Also, he said BuCor is planning to put up facilities for PDLs convicted of heinous crimes in existing military reservations in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. “We may need more than P77 billion to put up more facilities in existing prisons facilities,” he said.
To address the decongestion program, Catapang said that BuCor is expediting its “Bilis-laya” program which streamlined the processing of documents to enable the timely release of PDLs.
In the meantime that NBP has yet to be shut down, BuCor has procured security equipment to monitor activities against the continued violence, entry of contrabands, and escape of inmates, he said.
He noted that BuCor has already acquired and now utilizes K9 units, closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras, and body-worn cameras.
Also, he said BuCor is eyeing the purchase of at least four large scanners to be installed at NBP, two units at maximum-security and one each at the medium and minimum-security areas.
Catapang noted that his reform agenda is not concentrated on facilities and PDLs alone. He said he also has to scrutinize and initiate development of the bureau’s personnel.
“It takes two to tango. Hindi pwede magsayaw mag-isa. Dalawa ‘yan parati (It’s not just one dancing. It’s always two),” Catapang said.
As part of the reformation efforts, he said that BuCor has been conducting trainings on Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards as well as the Anti-Red Tape Act.
He said the bureau will be implementing its Comprehensive Administrative Machinery (CAM) pursuant to RA 10575.
“Ito pwede ako magdischarge dito (Based on this machinery I can discharge personnel),” he said as he pointed out that RA 10575 gives him the disciplinary power against erring personnel.
He said a copy of the CAM was received last Aug. 4 by the University of the Philippines’ (UP) College of Law for publication prior to enforcement.
He lamented that CAM has never been implemented due to lack of publication.
When he was still at the AFP, Catapang said that uniformed scalawags were immediately removed from the service with dishonorable discharge that would make it difficult for them to find jobs.
But in BuCor, he said the wrongdoings committed by personnel will have to pass through the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
He said about 800 uniformed and civilian personnel of BuCor are facing possible removal from the service for their failure to comply with RA 10575 which mandates that they should be college graduates or with civil service eligibility so they could continue holding on to their posts.
But they were given time to comply with the law. “Hanggang December na lang sila (They have until December to comply),” he said.
“Finish or not finished, pass your paper,” Catapang said he will tell the involved personnel in December.