Prioritize inmate care — lawmaker
A CONGRESSMAN urged on Tuesday that the welfare of prisoners be prioritized once the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) begins generating income from economic zones to be built in penal colonies of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).
Party-list Representative Brian Raymund S. Yamsuan issued the call following last week’s signing of a deal between the BuCor and the PEZA to set up economic zones at idle penal colonies after BuCor Director General Gregorio P. Catapang, Jr. released more than 600 inmates.
“We laud Gen. Catapang for taking the lead in developing BuCor’s real estate assets through tie-ups with the private sector. This plan is a key factor in transforming the bureau into a modern, highly professionalized and self-sustaining agency,” said the lawmaker.
He said income from the proposed economic zones may be spent on living spaces, food, medical care, and reformation programs for persons deprived of liberty.
A staunch advocate of reforms in the country’s fragmented correctional system, Mr. Yamsuan is the principal author of House Bill 8672, which aims to create a Department of Corrections and Jail Management (DCJM).
According to Mr. Catapang, the BuCor’s land assets total 48,783 hectares “that can be converted into agro- and aqua-culture sites and economic zones.”
The lands are composed of 25,000 hectares (ha) in Ihawig, Puerto Princesa City, Palawan; 7,000 ha in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro; and 300 ha in the national penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.
The Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm is a possible site of the first ecozone to be set up under the BuCor-PEZA partnership. It is where the Department of Agriculture has an ongoing project to establish a modern agricultural hub, known as the Reformation Initiative for Sustainable Environment for Food Security (RISE) project.
Mr. Yamsuan, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, said qualified PDLs should also be given priority in getting jobs in the ecozones and other business ventures now that the bureau has partnered with PEZA.
Earlier, PEZA Director General Tereso O. Panga said his agency’s 422 economic zones host more than 4,350 projects with 1.8 million Filipino workers generating over $65 billion (P3.651 trillion) in actual export sales. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz