BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – The male dormitory of the Metro Bacolod District Jail (MBDJ) in Barangay Singcang-Airport was designed to accommodate 200 inmates.
Today, however, it is packed with 704 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
The current jail population has exceeded the facility’s capacity, acknowledged Jail Chief Inspector Ian Carl Niaga, warden.
The overcrowding raised the alarm last week when 40 PDLs fell ill. They mostly exhibited flu-like symptoms.
MBDJ’s medical staff attended to the medical needs of the PDLs.
Niaga also said the Department of Health (DOH) regularly checks MBDJ inmates.
If a PDL requires hospitalization, a court order is requested, he added.
Overcrowding is just one of the issues hounding the MBDJ. There are allegations of poor food quality for inmates, too. Niaga, however, denied this. Jail officers check the food being cooked and rationed to the inmates, he stressed.
The daily budget for food per PDL is P70.
Meanwhile, Niaga revealed subjecting the PDLs to drug tests on Aug. 2.
None tested positive for drug use.
A shakedown of the premises was also conducted and no contraband was recovered, said Niaga.
Recently, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) national chief Jail Director Ruel Rivera pledged to fulfill the agency’s mandate of providing secure, reformation-oriented and well-managed jail facilities across the country.
The new chief vowed to continue working on BJMP’s J.A.I.L. Plan 2040, to support the “Buhay Ingatan, Droga’y Ayawan” (BIDA) Program of the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Marcos administration’s Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028.
Across the country, the BJMP has 20,813 personnel taking care 126,606 PDLs confined in 479 jails. (Watchmen Daily Journal)
