The “carpeta” or records of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) are now being processed by the Department of Justice (DoJ) with the Board of Pardons and Parole, Public attorney’s Office (PAO) and the Bureau of Corrections (BoC).
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the objective of the review is to already set free those qualified to leave the country’s penal facilities for various reasons.
Remulla said that PAO chief Persida Acosta and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Gerald Bantag recently visited his office to talk about ways of decongesting the densely-packed jails.
BuCor manages the following prison facilities: New Bilibid, Iwahig, San Ramon in Zamboanga, Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong, Sablayaan in Oriental Mindoro, Davao del Norte and The Leyte Regional Prison in Southern Leyte.
A prison reform expert is being wooed to head the Parole and Probation Administration, an attached agency of the DoJ, Remulla said.
His name is Raymond Darag. He is now a professor of criminal justice in America. He is the one I’m consulting pertaining to the decongestion and the life of those PDLs and what is the culture in our jail system,” Remulla said.
The justice chief said, Narag was imprisoned for seven years in the Philippines but was later acquitted and subsequently released from prison.
After his release, Narag finished his doctorate degree in the United States and taught criminal and forensic science in foreign universities.