Placing all provincial jails under BJMP will reduce prisonbreaks — DILG 

MANILA, Philippines — Placing all provincial  jails under the Bureau of Jail Management Penology’s (BJMP) watch will help reduce prisonbreaks, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Wednesday.

“I am confident that with BJMP’s competence in managing jails and with its professional corps of uniformed jail officers, prisonbreak incidents in provincial jails will be substantially reduced,” Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said in a statement.

Año said this as he supported Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon’s proposal to integrate all provincial jails under the BJMP.

Año said the proposal will standardize jail management policies and will ensure an improvement in the training of jail personnel.

He said there are reports pointing to some jails being managed by local government units (LGUs) as having “ill-trained personnel.”

Some LGUs also have inadequate jail facilities which could lead to more incidents of inmate escapes, Año noted.

DILG said 13 out of 74 provincial jails nationwide are under BJMP’s supervision because of a memorandum of agreement between provincial governments.

Under Republic Act No. 6975, the BJMP is “mandated to operate city, district and municipal jails.”

But provincial and sub-provincial jails are under management and control of provincial governments as per the Local Government Code.  /muf