Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has started laying down the groundwork for the transfer of inmates at the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City to Occidental Mindoro.
Remulla said this was because the existing jail facility is no longer ideal, since it is located within a bustling city.
Likewise, there is a need to decongest the number of inmates housed at NBP.
Records show the Muntinlupa facility houses 28,900 inmates, exceeding its ideal capacity of 6,435.
Meanwhile, Remulla appointed lawyer Jose Dominic F. Clavano lV as DoJ spokesperson. He succeeds former assistant secretary Neal Bainto.
Clavano, born on 9 March 1991, was the second nominee of the Bisaya Gyud partylist, which failed to win in the 9 May elections.
He obtained his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University’s Law School and passed the 2018 Bar examinations.
In 2019, Clavano joined the government as associate solicitor at the Office of the Solicitor General.
Remulla explained during a meeting of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights that inmates in the medium and maximum-security prisons are being planned to be transferred to Mindoro.
This can be done legally based on an existing law that authorizes it.
He said the Mindoro facility is ideal since it has a vast tract of land that the inmates can cultivate and in the process, be rehabilitated.
Remulla is eyeing an eight to 10-hectare government property in Occidental Mindoro for the maximum-security compound inmates.
On the other hand, inmates of the minimum-security facility may be transferred to the Mega Drug Abuse Treatment Rehabilitation Center in Fort Magsaysay, Nueva Ecija.
The Justice chief explained the underutilized drug rehabilitation facility has enough space to accommodate all inmates who are serving short sentences.