Bilibid tags appliances allowed in prison

MANILA — The New Bilibid Prison has begun “tagging” appliances that are allowed in the facility, a move its head said would further boost  efficiency and organization  during surprise raids.

Supt. Richard Schwarzkopf, NBP head, said the “new system” was put in place by Bureau of Corrections director Ricardo Rainier Cruz III  a month ago also to make sure that the raids would be fair.

Under the system, appliances that should not be confiscated by prison authorities conducting routine and surprise raids in any of the facility compounds would be “tagged,” meaning that a sticker would be placed on them.

Appliances that are allowed include television sets “for common use,” and electric fans, only one for each inmate.

“It’s because before, sometimes appliances that were allowed inside the facility were among those confiscated during the raids. Now we want to avoid that,” Schwarzkopf said.

According to the prison official,  each sticker contains a serial number and the specific location of the tagged appliance in the facility.

He said these details are recorded with the  NBP.

“So once we conduct a surprise inspection and we see an appliance with the sticker, we check in our records if that sticker was supposed to be in that appliance in the first place. If we find that it is, we don’t confiscate the appliance,” Schwarzkopf explained.

Asked how many appliances were tagged so far, Schwarzkopf said he could not give an exact figure just yet.

“We are still in the process of fixing and accounting for everything,” he said.  SFM