House bill on contraband control in detention cells passes 2nd reading

A Bureau of Corrections worker sifts through contraband items seized at the New Bilibid Prison during a raid conducted by authorities in March 2020. (File photo by GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The proposed Contraband Detection and Control Act — or House Bill No. 9153 — passed its second reading in the House of Representatives on Wednesday via viva voce voting.

The bill — a consolidation of three other proposed measures — seeks to require all government agencies and local government units that run a detention facility to set up a  Contraband Detection and Control System (CDCS).

“The CDCS shall include the use of modern technology, devices, or units such as handheld and walk-through metal detectors, X-ray scanners, and K9 units, that would assist in the effective implementation of this Act,” the bill says.

“All personnel in charge of the entry to correctional, custodial or detention facilities shall conduct an effective contraband detection and control procedure using CDCS technologies and devices, in addition to the traditional methods of searching any person, including their personal effects and belongings, entering such facilities.”

The bill  would prohibit the following acts in any correctional, custodial, or detention facility:

• getting into or even trying to get contraband inside
• assisting or abetting getting contraband inside
• possessing, obtaining, or attempting to possess or obtain, contraband while being confined or detained, or while serving sentence in any such facility
• failing to register before entering a facility

Violations of such acts would be penalized with imprisonment ranging from  20 years and day up to 40 years with a fine of P5 million to P10 million.

The presence of contraband items inside jails and other detention facilities has been a recurring problem in the country.

In July 2021, the Philippine National Police chief at that time, now retired General Guillermo Eleazar, said that the police would do more jail visits to ensure that no contraband items would be sneaked into detention facilities.

Then just last August 2023, the chief of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor), Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr., gave inmates at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) an ultimatum on the surrender of all contraband items in their possession due to recent violent incidents there.