ONE hundred more inmates from the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City have been transferred to the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm as part of the overall efforts of the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Corrections to decongest the national penitentiary.
BuCor Director General Gregorio Catapang Jr. said the inmates were transferred last Saturday under tight guard from 30 correction officers, BuCor SWAT and the PNP.
“Of the said number, 20 are from the Reception and Diagnostic Center and 80 from the Medium Security Camp,” Catapang said. “They left the NBP Saturday night and arrived safely at Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm early morning Sunday.”
Last week, Catapang said 740 inmates were released from August to October this year, bringing to 16,657 inmates released since 2022 as part of the agency’s overall efforts to decongest its prison facilities, especially the NBP.
The NBP and six other operating prison and penal farms of BuCor nationwide hold over 52,000 inmates, although their total capacity is only around 12,000, or an average congestion rate of 231 percent.
The national penitentiary alone holds over 28,000 inmates, a far cry from its original capacity of 9,885 when it was built.
This prompted the DOJ, the mother agency of BuCor, to institute a decongestion program in 2022, particularly at the NBP before its planned closure in 2028 to give way to a commercial and business center.
