The Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights is set to conduct another hearing at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City on Tuesday, Aug. 22, and is expected to look into the circumstances surrounding the escape of a person deprived of liberty (PDL).
Chaired by Senator Francis Tolentino, the committee held last Aug. 8 a hearing on the reported discovery of a mass grave inside a septic tank of the NBP’s maximum-security compound.
But during the hearing, the National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) medical legal division reported that the supposed bone of a human person actually was a bone of a chicken leg.
On Aug. 22 hearing that will start at 9 a.m., the committee is expected to look into the escape last July 15 of PDL Michael Angelo Cataroja who was arrested last Aug. 17 in Rizal by operatives of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
While Cataroja told the PNP after his arrest that he casually walked out of the NBP by pretending to be one of the visitors, he told the board of inquiry created by Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. that he escaped “by clinging to the bottom of a garbage truck.”
Cataroja even demonstrated to the members of the board of inquiry how he escaped from NBP.
Meanwhile, Catapang had announced that starting in September this year, BuCor’s operating prisons and penal farms (OPPFs) will be “cashless” zones to prevent illegal activities.
“By this we mean, PDLs and even Corrections Officers assigned to man the security compound will not be allowed to carry cash money or else it will be confiscated,” Catapang said.
He said that with the new policy, “we are hitting two birds with one stone – one, to eradicate the use of cash money in illegal business transactions of PDLs and two, to be able to discipline our own personnel from meddling with PDL’s money.”
Under the BuCor rules, PDLs are allowed to possess money of up to P2,000 per week while serving their sentence.
The money they receive are either from proceeds of their engagement in work and livelihood programs or those sent to them from relatives and friends to supplement their basic needs, BuCor said.
“However, we received reports that some PDLs used their money in illegal business transactions, so to put a stop into this practice, all OPPFs will be ‘cashless zones’,” Catapang said.
Under the new system, Catapang explained that the BuCor will issue to PDLs booklets instead of cash that “will reflect the amount credited to the name of the holder and entitling him to purchase goods or items from IPX, a store inside prisons.”
Catapang also said that the “supply and operation of IPX inside the OPPFs will be managed by BuCor cooperatives where every employee is a member, and proceeds for this operation will be deposited directly to their funds as part of their incentives.”
He warned that when the new policy is enforced, cash found in the possession of PDLs and correction officers will be confiscated.
“Confiscated money from PDLs will be deposited to the PDLs trust fund while confiscated money from COs will be deposited to the employees trust fund,” he said.