Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 9) — The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on Friday signed an agreement to help the national penitentiary ensure that the human rights of inmates are protected.
“We have forgotten them for so long a time. And then we have not treated them like they have rights. To a point that the mission of BuCor, it has failed in its mission to safeguard the inmates,” BuCor chief Gregorio Catapang said.
The CHR initially intended to train at least one BuCor personnel for every security compound in all prison facilities to become a human rights officer. However, Catapang said that is not enough.
Catapang claimed that the rights of detainees have long been neglected. Hence, he is pushing for each BuCor jail facility to have an office that would ensure the human rights of detainees are respected.
“Imagine sa maximum, 28,000 yan. Hindi pwedeng isang CHR officer lang. Siguro, may team yan — yung bawat quadrant, bawat grupo,” Catapang added.
[Translation: In the maximum security prison, that’s 28,000 inmates. It can’t be just one CHR officer. Maybe, there has to be a team for each quadrant, each group.]
According to CHR chairperson Richard Palpal-latoc, among the priority topics to be taught to BuCor employees are anti-torture policies and the basic human rights of inmates.
“Meron tayong batas na laban sa torture. Isa ho yan sa itataguyod na mahalagang ipaalam sa mga PDLs and mga human rights officer sa piitan,” Palpal-latoc said.
[Translation: We have a law against torture. That is one of the things that will be promoted to the PDLs and human rights officers in the penitentiary.]
“They have the right to life, to food, to safety, to health and others,” he added.
Catapang emphasized that respect for the inmates’ human rights must be ingrained in BuCor personnel, so that once their sentences are complete detainees can be reformed and turned into contributing members of society.
There are nearly 50,000 detainees in seven facilities of the BuCor, with the biggest being the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City with almost 29,000 inmates.
