AT least 70 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) transferred from the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City arrived Sunday at the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog, Leyte.
Bureau of Corrections Director General Gregorio Pio P. Catapang Jr. disclosed that of those transferred, 50 PDLs came from the Maximum Camp while 20 came from the Reception and Diagnostic Center of the NBP.
The continuing transfer of PDLs to various operating prisons and penal farms is part of BuCor’s decongestion effort and to provide additional workforce for agricultural projects.
Meanwhile, Catapang said that he will push for the revival of the construction of corrections facilities in Laur, Nueva Ecija, which were already approved by the regional development council of Central Luzon in 2015.
Catapang said the approved project aims to decongest NBP and was supposed to be implemented under a public-private partnership involving the construction of correction facilities on a 500 hectare lot in Laur, Nueva Ecija for NBP and Correctional Institution for Women.
“We need to revisit this project to partially solve overcrowding at NBP and while awaiting funds for the implementation of RA 10575, otherwise known as the BuCor Modernization Act,” Catapang said.