(CNN Philippines) — The Quezon City government has acquired property in Barangay Payatas — located in the city’s second district — and has pegged it as the location for a new city jail.
In a report on the official website of the government of Quezon City, Mayor Herbert Bautista signed the deed of absolute sale for the 3.4 hectare property last Wednesday (April 22).
The new jail, composed of two five-storey buildings, will be able to accommodate 6,600 inmates.
The decision to move the facility was seen as the solution to the congestion at the current city jail located in Kamuning.
The report said, “The location of the existing city jail has been surpassed and overwhelmed by the development of the area, and therefore considered to be a strategically inconvenient and disadvantageous to its neighboring communities and to Quezon City.”
According to Jail Senior Insp. Alberto Mariano, chief of Real Property Division–Directorate for Logistic, P200 million was allocated for the new city jail in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology’s (BJMP) 2012 budget. However, it has been reverted so the fund will have to be requested again.
The report also said that the city government is also planning to put up a barangay community center in the area since only 2.4 hectares of the acquired property will be utilized as jail site.
Currently, there are 2,993 male detainees at the QC Jail in Kamuning and 595 female inmates at the QC Police District headquarters at Camp Karingal.
