Elderly, sick NBP inmates moved to minimum security

Facade of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), with the sign of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). Image from the BuCor website

While awaiting the granting of executive clemency from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., 50 elderly inmates were transferred from the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) to its less congested minimum security compound.

The transfer of the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) on Thursday was the first batch of transfers aimed at decongesting Bilibid’s maximum security compound for high-risk inmates.

Gregorio Catapang Jr., acting director general of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), said PDLs who are 70 years old and above “regardless of the cases they are involved [in]” may be transferred to the minimum security compound.

Catapang requested the President to consider granting executive clemency to more than 3,000 sickly and elderly inmates, above 65 years old, inmates confined in all of BuCor’s seven prison and penal farms across the country. Of these PDLs, more than 2,000 were from the Bilibid.

According to Catapang, the letter was already sent to Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla to endorse it to Mr. Marcos.

In regular cases, PDLs who are 70 years old or older and are nearing the completion of their sentence are transferred to the minimum security compound also known as Camp Bukang Liwayway.

Of the 29,417 inmates in Bilibid, 17,816 are at maximum security compound, while 1,573 are at minimum security compound based on BuCor data.

The BuCor treats minimum security PDLs as “those who can be reasonably trusted to serve their sentence under open conditions,” usually without the presence of guards.

But Catapang, a retired general, and the BuCor did not respond to queries if retired Army general Jovito Palparan would be included among those to be transferred to the minimum security compound.

The 72-year-old Palparan was found responsible for the disappearance of University of the Philippines students Sheryl Cadapan and Karen Empeño in 2006.

Instead of reclusion perpetua, as imposed by the Malolos City Regional Trial Court in 2018, the Court of Appeals in June this year modified the sentence to reclusion perpetua without eligibility for parole. INQ

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