Aguirre to Bilibid inmates: ‘Stay away from illegal activities’

He said training would be conducted for the local jails “on how to compute and how to give time allowances to persons deprived of liberty.” (PNA Photo)

MANILA— Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II reminded new inmates at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) not to get involved in illegal drug activities or any other crimes while in detention.

“Huwag kayong sumama sa gulo, tiwaling gawain habang kayo nandito.Huwag na huwag kayo madadamay sa droga, sa krimen dito sa loob. (Don’t get involved in any mess or anomalous activities here and also don’t be involved in drug and other crimes),” Aguirre told around 1,800 new NBP inmates who would be spending their first Christmas inside the national penitentiary on Wednesday night as part of the agency’s outreach program.

“Alam ninyo yan ang misyon ng Pangulong Duterte na pawiin ang droga sa ibabaw at balat ng Pilipinas (You know this is President Duterte’s mission to cure the drug menace in the Philippines),” he said.

Aguirre also assured inmates that their good behavior inside the prison walls will be rewarded with their early release as he encourage them “not to lose hope.”

“Sa ilalim ng bagong batas ng good conduct and time allowance, magandang asal at pagbabahagi ng oras susi ay sa inyong mas mabilis na paglaya (Under the new law on good conduct and time allowance, good conduct and spending time will be the key to your early release),” the Secretary explained.

Last December 1, The DOJ and the Department of the Interior and Local Government launched the first uniform guideline that would decongest jails and prisons through standardizing the computation of “good conduct” and specify time allowances and service of persons deprived of liberty (PDL).

Justice Undersecretary ReynanteOrceo, chairman of the DOJ-DILG joint committee, said the Uniform Manual on Time Allowance and Service of Sentence would be used by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), which is under DILG, and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), an attached agency of the DOJ.

Orceo said jail authorities expect a 20 percent decrease in the population of inmates, as credits for their “good conduct” would be properly computed, pushing for the reduction of their jail terms.

“Ngayon, uniform na natin yan. Pinag-isa na natin yun sistema ng dalawang ahensiya para sa mga persons deprived of liberty (Now it’s uniform. We merged the systems of two agencies for the benefit of persons deprived of liberty),” Orceo said.

The uniform manual was created pursuant to Republic Act 10592, an act that amended several provisions of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

The manual stresses the law authorizing credit of preventive imprisonment and the revision of good conduct time allowance of PDLs.

The law also allows the BuCor Director General, the BJMP Chief, and wardens of provincial, district, municipal and city jails to grant time allowances for good conduct, studying, teaching or mentoring, and loyalty.

“The purpose is really to, well the decongestion is the effect that we’ll have if we have this uniform manual. It’s actually for the benefit of persons deprived of liberty that eventually had been convicted and they will lessen their designated sentence,” Orceo added.

He said training would be conducted for the local jails “on how to compute and how to give time allowances to persons deprived of liberty.”

“We want to have a unification, a uniform [process], and we want to help and to train the local jail because, although the law mandated the local to also give time allowances, they (are) still not implementing it for some reason they don’t have the knowledge and the capabilities,” he explained.