New Bilibid Prisons. SCREENGRAB FROM HTTP://BUCOR.GOV.PH
MANILA, Philippines — Following allegations of “degrading and traumatic” strip search at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) said its jail officers only conduct the procedure to visitors they highly suspect to be carrying contraband.
In a statement sent to INQUIRER.net on Monday evening, Chief Inspector Marlon Mangubat, BuCor’s Public Information Office chief, explained that visitors are subjected to strip searchers, which he said were “done in a professional manner and with the utmost consideration.”
READ: Wives of political prisoners complain over degrading strip search at NBP
“We conduct strip searches on visitors whom we have a strong suspicion of carrying any contraband, also as to act on an actionable intel regarding a possible attempt to smuggle in any illegal items by a person gaining access into our prison gates,” Mangubat said.
“These, however, are done in a professional manner and with utmost consideration to protect the interest also of the person being subjected to such,” he added.
Individual previously caught
The chief inspector explained that the procedure was imposed after BuCor caught individuals attempting to “perpetrate illegal activities inside prison compounds, most especially female visitors who exploit their own bodies to become vessels for such abhorring items.”
“It must also be pointed out that such security protocols are within the ambit of BuCor’s commitment to rid our security compounds of any form of criminality, which strongly undermines its twin mandates of effective safekeeping and rehabilitating PDLs,” Mangubat said.
“Simply put, any person who will not submit themselves to our security protocols has no business entering the same,” he added.
BuCor’s statement came after wives of political prisoners filed a complaint before the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) earlier Monday. Members of Kapatid, a support organization for the families of political prisoners, claimed they were subjected to degrading and traumatic “strip search” at the NBP during their last visit on April 21.
Fides Lim, spokesperson of Kapatid, revealed that NPB jail officers continued searching the wives even after pleading that they were not carrying illegal drugs or contraband.
Before this, the wives were requested to sign a waiver for the strip search, but Lim claimed that the waiver was used to “abuse and body cavity search,” which is “in violation of the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners stating that intrusive searches should be undertaken ‘only if absolutely necessary.’”
One of the wives said jail searchers ignored her explanation and made her sign the form for the procedure, which included the lifting of her shirt and upper undergarments, as well as the removal of her pants and underwear.