Five hundred persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) were transferred last Friday night, April 12, from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City to the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (IPPF) in Palawan.
Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gregorio P. Catapang Jr. said the transfer was part of the continuing decongestion of NBP for its eventual closure and to augment the agricultural workforce of IPPF.
Of those transferred, 200 PDLs were from NBP’s reception and diagnostic center, and 150 each from the maximum and medium security compound.
Catapang said those transferred were escorted by 147 corrections officers with augmentation from the Muntinlupa Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group and Skyway Patrol.
Last March 16, 500 PDLs from NBP were transferred to the Davao Prison and Penal Farm (DPPF) in Panabo City in Davao del Norte.
Last Feb. 8 and March 9, BuCor also transferred 400 NBP’s PDLs to the Leyte Regional Prison (LRP) in Abuyog, Leyte.
Prior to the transfers done last February and March, BuCor records show that 3,259 PDLs from the NBP and the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City have been transferred to other prison facilities from June 2022 to January 2024.
Those transferred were relocated to the DPPF, IPPF, and Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm (SPPF) in Occidental Mindoro.
Meanwhile, BuCor clarified its earlier statement that only two of its personnel were relieved of their posts over the arrest of a PDL and a civilian in an illegal drugs buy-bust operation inside San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm (SRPPF) reservation in Zamboanga City.
SRPPF Supt. Corrections Chief Inspector Vic Domingo Suyat said that CSO4 John Hicap and CO2 Joel Broncano were those relieved of their duties from the Work and Livelihood Program as they were the escorts of the PDL at the time of the incident.
Arrested during the buy-bust operation were PDL Kerwin Mohammad Abadilla and civilian Albadir Mala Ajijul who have been charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
The buy-bust operation was conducted when 15 PDLs, including Abadilla, were taken out of the prison farm's minimum-security compound for their institutional assignments at a five-hectare vegetable plantation within the prison reservation.
“Recovered from those arrested was an undetermined amount of white crystalline substance believed to be shabu,” BuCor said.