LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – This capital town will soon have its own state-of-the-art jail facility following the signing of a memorandum of agreement between the municipal government and the Cordillera office of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP-CAR) for the realization of the said project.
The agreement was signed by Mayor Romeo K. Salda and BJMP-CAR regional director Senior Superintendent Edgar Bolcio for the immediate prosecution of the put up of the La Trinidad municipal jail in a conducive area in the town.
Under the agreement, the P13.2 million fund for the project will come from the national government through the BJMP-CAR while the 1,000 to 2,000 square meters required for the municipal jail facility will be provided by the municipal government from its purchased property in barangay Shilan.
“We are elated that the project will now be realized after we were able to iron out the various issues that cropped up when the plan to put up a new municipal jail was brought to the fore. We will surely do our part to ensure the speedy implementation of the project,” Mayor Salda stressed.
The project is expected to be bidded out before the implementation of the election ban covering the implementation of projects so that there will be no unnecessary delays in the continuous prosecution of the project that is intended to help in decongesting the existing jail facility.
Salda disclosed that the current population of the municipal jail is 77 male and 26 male and female persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).
Aside from the land where the municipal jail facility will be constructed, the local chief executive disclosed that one of the counterparts of the local government will be the construction of the road leading to the municipal jail area wherein the funds will be sourced from the available appropriations of the municipality.
According to him, the partnership between the BJMP-CAR and the municipal government is part of the efforts of the administration of Mayor Salda to establish linkages with the different government agencies that could provide the necessary funding and technical assistance for the continuous implementation of major development projects that could not be funded by the locality.
He underscored that there is a need to support the construction of the additional jail facility to help in decongesting the existing municipal jail and in preparation for the possible increase in the number of PDLs who will be detained due to various cases as a result of the increase in crimes being committed in the fast developing local government.
Salda expressed confidence that the bidding of the project will be successful so that there will be no unnecessary interruptions when the winning contractor will be required to prosecute the project even during the campaign period so that the municipality will be able to have an additional jail facility once it will be completed probably by the end of the year.
By HENT
