HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL

CORRRECTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

Pre-colonial times- the informal prison system was community-based. Since there is
no penitentiaries.

Formal prison system in the Philippines Spanish Regime…

1847 pursuant to Section 1708 of the Revised Administrative Code and opened by
Royal Decree in 1865
*Old Bilibid Prison- was constructed as the main penitentiary on Oroquieta Street,
Manila. This prison became known as the “Carcel y Presidio Correccional” and could
accommodate 1,127 prisoners.

Carcel - 600 prisoners

Presidio - 527 prisoners
The construction of the prison were first published on September 12, 1859 but
it was not realize until April 10, 1866 that the entire facility was completed.

August 21, 1869. San Ramon prison and penal farm in Zamboanga City was
established to confine Muslim rebels and recalcitrant political prisoners.
- 1,414-hectare

American and Commonwealth Governments

- Americans took over in the 1900s
- the Bureau of Prisons was created under the Reorganization Act of 1905 (Act No.
1407 dated November 1, 1905)
- an agency under the Department of Commerce and Police.

- 1907 re-establishment of San Ramon Prison which was destroyed during the Spanish-
American War.
- January 1, 1915, the San Ramon Prison was placed under the auspices of the Bureau
of Prisons and started receiving prisoners from Mindanao.

- 1904 the Iuhit penal settlement (now Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm)
- vast reservation of 28,072 hectares
- 40,000 hectares in the late 1950s
- Located in Palawan.
- expanded to 41,007 hectares by virtue of Executive Order No. 67 issued by Governor
Newton Gilbert on October 15, 1912.
- November 27, 1929, the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) was created under
Act No. 3579 to provide separate facilities for women offenders.
- Davao Penal Colony in Southern Mindanao was opened in 1932 under Act No. 3732.

Transfer of the Old Bilibid to Muntinlupa

- Commonwealth Act No. 67 was enacted, appropriating one million (P1,000.000.00)
pesos for the construction of a new national prison in the southern suburb of
Muntinlupa, Rizal in 1935.

- November 15, 1940, all inmates of the Old Bilibid Prison in Manila were transferred to
the new site.
- 3,000 prisoners
- January 22, 1941. officially named the New Bilibid Prison

Developments After WWII

- 1941death chamber was constructed
- 1960s fences were further reinforced with concrete slabs
- 1970 maximum security compound built
- 1980 height of the concrete wall was increased and another facility was constructed,
2.5 kilometers from the main building.

Camp Sampaguita or the Medium Security Camp, which was used as a military
stockade during the martial law years
Bukang Liwayway the Minimum Security Camp

September 26, 1954 the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm in Occidental Mindoro was
established. Under Proclamation No. 72
January 16, 1973. The Leyte Regional Prison followed suit under Proclamation No.
1101

RECEPTION DIAGNOSTIC CENTER

- was created in Building No. 9 of the Maximum Security Compound of the New Bilibid
Prison (NBP), Muntinlupa City
- handles the orientation, diagnosis and treatment of newly arrived inmates.
- determine an inmate’s strength as well as moral weaknesses, physical inadequacies,
character disorders, and his educational, social and vocational needs.
- the first sixty (60) days, a prisoner and his new environment that primordial functions
pertaining to his care and rehabilitation treatment are exhaustively carried out by the
staff.

February 6, 2003. RDC was turned into a Therapeutic Community Camp

June 4, 2004, RDC also started erasing gang marks of all newly committed prisoners in
an effort to eradicate the gang system within the Bureau.

June 18, 2005, Director Dionisio Santiago entrusted the administration of the
Muntinlupa Juvenile Training Center (MJTC) to the RDC through a memorandum

Under a memorandum of Director Vicente G. Vinarao dated March 31, 2005,

the RDC was given administrative control over all other RDCs of the Bureau of
Corrections.
- RDC has evolved into an institution that uses a modern positive approach towards
penology.

Non-Operational National Prisons

Corregidor Island and Mountain Province
The Corregidor lighthouse

- 1908 during the American regime, some 100 prisoners were transferred from the Old
Bilibid Prison to the Corregidor Island Prison Stockage to work under military
authorities.
- The inmates were transported not to serve time but for prison labor.

- The Philippine Legislature during the American regime also passed Act No. 1876
providing for the establishment of a prison in Bontoc, Mountain Province.
-The prison was built for the prisoners of the province and insular prisoners who were
members of the non-Christian tribes of Mountain Province and Nueva Viscaya.

April 26, 1932. The Bontoc prison was officially closed due to poorly developed
mountain and narrow roads.
Due to the enormous expenses incurred in transporting personnel, equipment and
supplies to the prison, the facility was abandoned.

LEYTE REGIONAL PRISON

situated in Abuyog, Southern Leyte, was established a year after the declaration
of martial law in 1972 by virtue of Presidential Decree No. 28. - LRP has an inmate
capacity of 500.
- agricultural format is the main correctional program in addition to some rehabilitation
activities.

NEW NAME
Administrative Code of 1987 and Proclamation No. 495 issued on November 22, 1989.
Change the agencies' name to Bureau of Corrections from Bureau of Prisons.