BAGUIO CITY – Jail Officers of the Baguio City Jail female and male dormitories announced that the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) is inclined to allocate some P500 million for the construction of new facilities for the increasing number of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) being detained in the said dormitories.
Baguio City Jail Male Dormitory Warden Chief Inspector Crispin Dornagon, Jr. said that BJMP regional and national officials informed them during their recent management committee meeting that the BJMP is inclined to allot some P500 million from the national government to fund the put up of a new jail facility in the city provided that there will be an available land that could be used for the realization of the project.
Under the proposed conditions for the provision of the funding, the local government will cede the available land to the BJMP to serve as the site for the construction of the new jail facility to accommodate both the male and female dormitories.
Dornagon claimed that the proposed site that the local government is recommending to serve as the relocation of the jail facilities in the portion of the 139-hectare city-owned property in Sto. Tomas is reportedly not feasible based on the initial assessment of jail officials because of its distance to the Baguio Justice Hall that will expose the PDLs and their escorts to security threats when transported to attend their scheduled hearings.
He suggested that initially, the Baguio City Jail female dormitory could be included as a part of the local government’s proposed multi-storey building that will be built in the city-owned lot in Camp Allen so that the space that will be vacated by the same will be used by the male dormitory as its expansion area while the local government will looking for an available lot where the new jail facility will be relocated.
At present, the Baguio City Jail male dormitory has a population of 423 PDLs while the female dormitory has a population of 89 PDLs.
Baguio City Jail Female Dormitory Jail Warden Chief Inspector April Rose Ayangwa claimed that the facility is considered to be overcrowded basing on the standards imposed by the United Nations (UN) wherein the female dormitory should only have a maximum of 50 PDLs.
She disclosed that the female PDLs only occupy 5 rooms that are situated in the facility and that there is no longer room for expansion in the said facility considering the limited space allotted for the purpose, thus, the absence of a conjugal room for legally married spouses.
Ayangwa said that once that the PDLs will reach more than 100, it becomes a problem for them because some of the PDLs will have to sleep on the floor that is why one of the solutions to help in reducing the overcrowding in the facility is to really work out with the courts, the prosecution and the lawyers of the PDLs the possibility of having them post bail for their offenses so that they will be out of the facility.
The jail officer claimed that the decongestion of the facility is a continuing process that should be undertaken to lessen the inconveniences of the PDLs having to make do with limited spaces within the local jail facilities that could compromise their health condition among others in the future.
By Dexter A. See
Banner photo by: Armando M. Bolislis