Corrections in the 

Philippines
Posted on August 9, 2011 by Ven J. Tesoro
CORRECTIONS’ ROLE IN NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Corrections is one of the imperatives, nay, pillars of criminal justice administration. It

is tasked to safe keep and to rehabilitate those convicted by the courts. It is in
corrections where the better part, which is the greater duration, of a sentenced person as
he spends the judicially prescribed penalty. It is therefore incumbent for correctional
administration not only to watch over, as in custodial manner, those serving time but to
manage the potential manpower it can offer through the requirements of social
concerns.

2. Corrections is not only a field where inmates are controlled under a regime of
discipline. It is not also a ground to dominate those who trespassed the laws. It is a
period when the so called law-breakers or the offenders are required to settle up their
social transgression to society.

3. To settle up does not imply that they should be confined for an idle period prescribed
by the courts, to while away time, to squander or fritter away a cycle. It should be
devoted if not dedicated towards meeting the requirements of social progress.

4. We have a growing demand to expand educational programs and therefore the need
for infrastructure. School buildings must be constructed and it goes without saying the
multiplication of classrooms. Chairs and student desks are therefore the basic
furnishings needed. Prisoners, like those in Australia and Hong Kong correctional
establishments, may be harnessed for carpentry works.

5. DENR’s aggressive posture in guarding the forests at times (or oftentimes) given us
reports on confiscated logs. These materials are significant not only as evidences idly
stocked to rot, but should be brought to prisons for carpentry works and the produce
distributed to schools for student use. No extra ordinary contracts for furniture, no
graft. No extra ordinary safekeeping of confiscated logs, no pilferage.

6. The Bureau of Corrections must enter into an agreement with TESDA for skills
development courses. Under this set up, Inmates may be classified according to skills
program. Inmates trained in carpentry can produce furniture. Government offices, like
those in Australia, need not procure their furniture elsewhere but in prison. Traffic
agencies, like those in Hong Kong, need not haggle any contract for its traffic and
related street signs. It can be done by inmates trained in graphic arts. Inmates trained in
dressmaking can supply government uniforms for women workers. Inmates trained in
tailoring can make available uniforms for the police and military, the same can be said
for the provision of shoes by inmates taught on shoe making. So on and so forth.

7. The prison camp may be organized into a quasi-factory where goods may be
manufactured, packed (repacked), assembled or prepared. Penal farms may also be
systematized so that agro products can be planned for mass production. All these are
geared to create revenues for the prison community, for an additional, if not self-
sustaining, subsistence of prisoners, and reduce the burden of seeking prison
appropriation from government funds, which can be diverted instead to education and
health of the citizenry in the free community.

8. In other countries, corrective service is a planned activity undertaken by both

government and private corporate organizations. Government appropriation is
therefore cut in half because the other half and more are provided for by the private
sector. Government gains an advantage in terms of savings, while the private sector
achieves a measure of cost benefit from the use of prison facilities, security and
manpower.

9. Corrections on local level may also be privatized like those in some states in USA and
in Canada. This would reduce markedly graft and corruption and could even introduce
savings and efficiency, not to mention the fact that rehabilitation can be fulfilled
through the initiative of the volunteer and church sector.

10. As it were, corrections sits at the middle of the cross road anticipating events
whether to be relevant to the efforts of government to complement its efforts towards
progress, or to just while away time, imposing control and staying on the sideline,
securing the perimeter fence and reacting on any violent expression of an idle prison
community.

11. Corrections entered the jargon of criminal justice (in 1986, replacing the name of the
Bureau of Prisons into Bureau of Corrections under the 1987 Administrative Code) when
it was used as nomenclature of an agency dealing with prisons and prisoners. But
Corrections per se is not about prisons and prisoners only. Corrections, aside from
institutional (prisons/jails), are also about non-institutional services (parole and
probation). The Bureau of Corrections as provided for in the 1987 Administrative Code
deals only with national prisoners. Other forms of corrective services were scattered.
Probation and Parole Administration is a line agency of the Department of Justice (like
the Bureau of Corrections); City, Municipal and District jails are under the Bureau of
Jail Management and Penology—an agency supervised by the Department of Interior
and Local Government; provincial jails are under the provincial government; children in
conflict with the law are managed by the Department of Social Services and
Development; etc. Corrections, as applied in the Philippine setting, are not the same
corrections as practiced in other countries.

12. What is even glaring is the fact that for almost two decades, there were no laws
passed pertaining corrections. Most if not all laws where penalties are prescribed,
indicated the imposition of imprisonment—even in such instances where there are
victimless crimes. That effectively bloated prison population. Corrections never had the
chance to be applied according to its precepts since the mode of correctional
administration was more on incarceration rather than rehabilitation. Worst,
rehabilitation has never even been defined at all. While corrective service is supposed to
be directed towards an open institution approach, what is obtaining in reality is that
corrective facilities are moving towards the direction of a closed institution.

13. There are number of laws that can be proposed to situate corrections within the
parameter of national importance. A Corrections Act may be recommended to integrate
institutional and non-institutional corrective service under a single department or
commission. (Under this proposed bill, there will be a commissioner for each approach
and the department or commission headed by a chairman. Privatization of local jails
may also be included as an option.) Alternative to imprisonment may also be explored
and community service may as well be its other penal expression. (This is an ideal penal
approach for female offenders and those convicted of committing victimless crimes.)
Work furlough may also be introduced as it has been one of the most effective penal
approaches in other countries. Compulsory work may also be put forward as a means to
generate revenues to sustain victim indemnity. (Under this concept, inmates enrolled in
work activities are compensated and part of their income goes to national coffer for
social remuneration.)

14. Some penal laws need amendments and revisions. The Bureau of Corrections has
been incorporated as the new name of the Bureau of Corrections (under the 1987
Administrative Code), and yet the entire provision that animates the bureau is still
unchanged. It is still based on the Prison Law of 1917. If at all there were revisions made,
it was not according to the standard of treatment as enunciated by UN but mostly
organizational. All jails, while it was still administratively under the Bureau of Prisons
pursuant to the Prison law of 1917, have been transferred to a newly established
Department (DILG). The same can be said about provincial jails. As a consequence,
every corrective unit manifests its own corrective rules and regulation. Corrections for
quite a time as a penal policy became as fragmented as ever.

15. Rules on parole, probation and other penal reliefs may also be looked into and
studied carefully. These are significant basis for the national leadership in the grant of
executive clemency. Inmates who have adjusted well and have contributed through
discipline in matters pertaining penal production and maintenance should be given the
necessary Presidential mercy and compassion in addition to the traditional basis of
granting relief as a matter of political accommodation or expedience.

16. Unless these are undertaken, and more, corrections remains a figment, a criminal
justice illusion, a fantasy recreated, and an expensive exercise in a overstretched
governance.
The Organization:
USEC GERALD Q. BANTAG
Director General

DEPUTY DIRECTORS

ASEC MILFREDO M MELEGRITO

Deputy Director General
for Administration

ASEC MILFREDO M MELEGRITO

Deputy Director General
for Security & Operation

GABRIEL P. CHACLAG, MBA

Deputy Director General
for Reformation

DIRECTORATE
CSUPT ROMMEL D ROXAS
OIC, Directorate for Security and Operations (DSO)

CTCSUPT MARIA FE R MARQUEZ

OIC, Directorate for Reformation (DR)

CSUPT LUIGI C TAN

Directorate for Reception and Diagnostics (DRD)

CTSUPT DOROTHY C. BERNABE

Deputy, Directorate for External Relations (DER)

CTCSUPT JOHN PAUL O SANTOS

Acting Dir. Directorate for Administration (DA)

NORA CORAZON T. PADIERNOS

Directorate for Planning and Management (DPM)
CHITO TURALDE
OIC Directorate for Finance and Logistics (DFL)

CCSUPT HENRY N FABRO

Directorate for Health Service (DHS)

PRISON AND PENAL FARM

SUPERINTENDENT AND OIC

CCINSP JOEL CALVELO

Officer-In-Charge
New Bilibid Prison (NORTH)
CINSP EDGAR N MORILLO
Officer-In-Charge
New Bilibid Prison (SOUTH)

CSINSP JEREMY L ARGONZA

Officer-In-Charge
New Bilibid Prison (EAST)
CINSP RUSHTY MAMING
Officer-In-Charge
New Bilibid Prison (WEST)

CSUPT VIRGINA S MANGAWIT

Superintendent
Correctional Institute for Women
CSSUPT ARTURO N SABADISTO
Superintendent
Leyte Reginal Prison

CSUPT RAUL P LEVITA

Superintendent
Iwahig Prison & Penal Farm
CSINSP JAYFERSON G BON-AS
Acting Superintendent
Sablayan Prison & Penal Farm

ATTY. JULIE MAY TAGUIAM

Superintendent
San Ramon Prison & Penal Farm
c

CSSUPT GERARDO F PADILLA

Superintendent
Davao Prison & Penal Farm
CCI DEOMEDES DADOR JR
Deputy Superintendent
Correctional Institute for Women - Mindanao

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