New Year celebrations in jails peaceful — BJMP

MANILA, Philippines – The New Year celebrations inside detention facilities have turned out to be peaceful with not a single untoward incident recorded, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) said.

BJMP Chief Jail Director Allan Iral said in a statement Wednesday that this is largely due to the efforts of jail officers and officials who spent the New Year’s Eve guarding the jails and the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), after directives to tighten security.

“My salute and thanks to my colleagues who spent the holidays in jails for recording a zero-incident and a peaceful celebration to welcome the year 2020,” said Iral.

“I appreciate all your efforts of securing our facilities and attending to the need of the PDL and their visitors,” he added.

The achievements posted by BJMP came after a thorough inspection of the jails, including the dormitory of the Quezon City Jail.  Under the BJMP are over 460 district, city, and municipal jails nationwide, housing 134,480 PDLs.

READ: BJMP vows no jailbreaks for rest of the holidays

The zero casualty recorded inside jails complements the Philippine National Police (PNP) declaration of the 2020 celebrations as the most peaceful yet, with a huge drop in firecracker-related and indiscriminate firing incidents.

“Based on PNP records, 2019 probably goes down in history as the safest and most uneventful observance of the Christmas and New Year holidays that posted zero death,” PNP Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac noted.

“It should be noteworthy that the 324 incidents recorded in 2019 pales in comparison with the 798 recorded in 2018,” he added.

READ: Record zero death through holiday season — PNP