Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan (PPAB)

With a P1.5 billion increase in its 2024 budget, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) should strengthen its reintegration programs for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), says Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan.

In a statement on Monday, Jan. 22, Yamsuan said reinforcing these programs will help decongest overpopulated jails and provide PDLs with opportunities to become productive individuals after detention.

“Providing targeted, appropriate interventions to PDLs while they are in the custody of the BJMP will help prevent them from becoming recidivists or repeat offenders,” the rookie lawmaker said.

“In turn, lowering the rate of recidivism will help ease overcrowding in BJMP jails,” he added.

The 2024 budget for the BJMP amounts to P23.87 billion, up by almost seven percent or P1.54 billion from the previous year’s P22.33 billion.

Yamsuan, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), noted that about 85 percent of the BJMP’s annual budget was allocated for the custody, safekeeping, and rehabilitation of PDLs under its care.

This year, the agency’s allocation for this component is P20.26 billion. This is a P1.28-billion increase from the P18.98 billion in 2023

“We urge the BJMP to utilize a significant portion of this P20.26 billion allocation for programs focusing on the reintegration of PDLs into the mainstream of society,” said Yamsuan.

The congressman explained that the BJMP’s reintegration strategy should be a “whole-of-society” approach. This is meant to facilitate the assimilation and adjustment of PDLs into the community.

Citing data from the DILG, the jail bureau’s congestion rate from January to October 2023 was at 348 percent, an improvement from the 367 percent recorded for the same period in 2022.  

Yamsuan, however, insisted that the more sustainable and long-term solution to jail congestion was to unify the fragmented correctional system into a Department of Corrections and Jail Management (DCJM).  

Under the lawmaker’s House Bill (HB) No. 8672, the BJMP, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), the correctional and jail services of the provincial governments, the Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP), and the Parole and Public Administration (PPA) will be under a single agency “to ensure a seamless coordination in  the administration of justice and the management and care of PDLs”.