BJMP swears in 1,000 jail officers to address lack of personnel

A total of 1,043 jail officers from different Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) regional wings took their oaths of office simultaneously to minimize the shortage of their personnel.

“With an annual regular quota of 500 recruits in the previous years, the BJMP for the first time pushed for the approval of increase on the recruitment quota from 500 to 1000 jail officers,” BJMP Chief Jail Director Deogracias Tapayan said in a statement on Monday.

BJMP said that as per the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management, 619 male and 424 female officers were added to the bureau’s roster of rank and file employees.

These new recruits will help in the management of the 486 district, city, and municipal jails nationwide, which house 144,020 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs).

The agency also said that the massive recruitment efforts are consistent with BJMP’s project #ILoveBJMP, and its request for additional funding from the Department of Budget and Management for the fiscal year 2018.

As a result, there are only 83 remaining slots out of the 1,320 vacant positions for jail officers, which are expected to be filled up before the start of August.

“The mass hiring is essential to provide quality jail management service towards a more rehabilitative facility for our PDL,” Tapayan said.

According to BJMP, applicants for jail officers should be aged 21 to 30 years old, a possessor of a college degree and civil service eligibility.

Aside from being at least 1.62 meters tall for men and 1.57 meters for women, applicants also should not weigh more than five kilograms from their ideal weight.

BJMP said that an entry level jail officer will earn a net pay of P37,488, inclusive of hazard pay, subsistence allowance, rice allowance, and clothing and laundry allowance. /je