CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATION

(NON-INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTION)

CHAPTER I

COMMUNITY-BASED CORRECTIONS

Not all convicted offenders have to serve their sentence behind bars. Some are allowed to
stay in the community, subject to conditions imposed by the government. They are either granted
Probation, Parole, Conditional Pardon or Recognizance.
Community-based approach to corrections as a way to decongest the prisons involve the
Public Attorney's Office and the National Prosecution Service effecting the immediate release of
detainees either on bail or recognize and giving priority to the trial of detainees who cannot be
released on bail or recognizance.
It involves the efficient performance of the Boards of Pardons and Parole in the granting of
timely release of prisoners and the effective supervision of released prisoners on parole or
conditional pardon and those under probation by the Probation and Parole Administration. Probation
and Parole are two forms of non institutional or community based corrections.

Non-institutional, Community-based Correctional Practices

The fact that our government is facing severe budgetary crisis does not augur well for the
Criminal Justice System most particularly the Corrections Pillar, which is the last destination of
society's convicted offenders.
Before, the peso exchange rate viz a viz the US dollar has been severely reduced from the
P26.00 to the dollar in 1997 to become almost P49.910 to the dollar as of November 13, 2006.
With this cramped situation, our foreign lenders will also downgrade our credit rating which
has the inverse effect of increasing our interest rate payments.
The devaluation of the peso will also lead to an increase in the price of imported oil which
will in turn force prices of local goods to increase.
Because of this, tax collections decrease, as what our government is experiencing now while
foreign debt payments increase, and prices of supplies and equipment increase.
This is a triple whammy that our government is now suffering. But the jails and prisons are
hardest hit because aside from the effects of this triple whammy, the economic crises also results to
increase in crime which we all know will result to increase in the prison and jail population. As a
result, there is prison overcrowding.
Our government is in a bind. If we improve the peace and order situation to allow our
economy to get out of the crisis can only mean improving law enforcement and prosecution of
offenders. But this can only result to increase in the jail and prison population which cannot be
effectively rehabilitated because of lack of funds. And to make matters worse, our Senators and
Congressmen are so narrow-minded that the only solution to crime that they can think of is to
increase the penalty.
The result is prison overcrowding of people that are innocent but were nevertheless
incarcerated because they could not come up with bribe money. And their cases drag in the courts
because they could not afford the services of a lawyer to make their cases heard. And when at long
last, the wheels of justice grind, it grind ever so slowly and in the end, the innocents are proven guilty
beyond reasonable doubts while the guilty rich and influential are found out to be innocent beyond
the shadow of doubt.
This is the situation facing our jails, and even our prisons.
To remedy this situation, the government shall direct its efforts toward helping to alleviate
three major problems facing corrections in the Philippines today, namely: jail and prison congestion,
the inadequacy of training programs for personnel in institutional and non-institutional corrections,
and the need to give preferential attention to improving the quality of services in the rehabilitation of
offenders.
Thus, the major projects for implementation in 2001 are the maximum implementation of
various measures of early release provided by existing laws; the provision of training programs on
records management, which is very timely considering the poor management of prison records,
which hampers the timely release of prisoners.
To realize the full benefits from this Jail Decongestion Program, the non-institutional or
community-based approach to corrections should be played to the hilt.
Non-institutional corrections refer to that method of correcting sentenced offenders without
having to go to prison. The advantages of this is that it is less costly on the part of government, the
offender's family need not suffer since the offender will not be sent away from them and he will still
be able to go on with his life and livelihood thereby enabling him to support his family. The
community will also be involved so that crime becomes less hard to control.
Advantages of community-based corrections are:
1. family members need not be victims also for the imprisonment of a member
because the convict can still continue to support his family, not to be far away from his
children,
2. rehabilitation will be more effective as the convict will not be exposed to hardened
criminals in prisons who will only influence him to a life of crime;
3. rehabilitation can be monitored by the community thus corrections can be made
and be more effective;
4. cost of incarceration will be eliminated which is extremely beneficial especially to
a cash-strapped government. An entire bureaucracy will be eliminated which includes the
salaries, benefits and perks of the officers and staff, capital outlays, operating costs,
maintenance of the facilities, subsistence of inmates, and many others.
The international community has long recognized that the goals of a humane criminal justice
system are best served if offenders are reintegrated and rehabilitated by means other than
incarceration. In fact, it has been widely accepted that incarceration or imprisonment should be
imposed on society's offenders only as a last resort, and that community-based treatment should
instead be promoted whenever possible and feasible to hasten offenders' reintegration.
Imprisonment leads to other problems related to an offenders stigmatization and de-
socialization. Often, prisons also thwart the offenders' potentials for growth and excellence and
spawn dependence and mistrust on their part instead. Prisons usually alienate offenders from their
family, friends and acquaintances. Due to overcrowding, prisons lead to dehumanizing conditions,
which make reintegration and re-socialization even more difficult. Prisons will also, more often,
expose an inmate to the influences and hold of hardened criminals making him hardened instead of
reformed upon release.
 Going to the roots of the problem should also be the concern of correctional officers. There is
a need to reexamine the problem of criminality from a social development perspective with emphasis
on the important role of social institutions such as the family and the community.
Social development, if we are to adhere to the definition established by the United Nations, is
the greater capacity of the social system, social structure, institutions, services and policy to utilize
resources to generate favorable changes in levels of living, interpreted in the broad sense as related to
accepted social values and a better distribution of income, wealth and opportunities.
In this way, a just and equitable society where no one is extremely rich as to deprived others
and consigns the great masses of society to poverty and misery. This is precisely the point that must
be corrected if we are to rehabilitate society in order to change the breeding ground of crime.
Changing the exploitative order will simply curtailing the greed of the few who are super rich to the
detriment of the many who became super poor.
Next to the family, the immediate community is seen as a valuable support system of an
offender. The community should assume primary responsibility for the offender, as it is usually the
origin of crime. But the situation of the community now is one that is conducive to crime. There is so
much poverty; there is so much exploitation, crass materialism, individualism, where no one cares
anymore for fellow human being. The community needs to be corrected if community-based
corrections can become effective.
New approaches in community-based treatment involve the harnessing and maximization of
community structures outside the family. The schools, the church, community leaders and officers,
non-government organizations, voluntary and people's organizations, civic associations, the business
groups and other sectors, in addition to government, are tapped and mobilized to contribute their
resources to the treatment and reintegration of offenders and the strengthening of their families.
Available institutions and mechanisms of government at the local level have to be
strengthened to promote partnership with the community in crime prevention and control include
among others, the Barangay Justice System. Peace and Order Council, the Barangay Anti-Drug
Abuse Council Crime Prevention Councils in schools and barangays, the National Crime Information
System and Patrol 117.
But instead of being passive or just reactive, these groups should go not only into
rehabilitating the offender but to rehabilitating society itself. The resources of these groups should be
harnessed to correct society and purge it of exploiters who sensationalize crimes, glorify criminals,
etc. etc.
To be effective, non-institutional corrections should be anchored strongly on the acceptance
and active support of the community Of course, the community is not only valuable in the success of
corrections but the success of the entire criminal justice system as well.
And going to the roots also require our corrections institutions to reduce the entrants to the
jail system not by making law enforcement and prosecution weak but by relying on the community to
implement justice.
Towards this end, the Philippines has its unique and indigenous way of settling disputes and
treating offenders at its smallest political unit level - the village or "barangay." The system is called
Katarungang Pambarangay" and is aimed at the amicable settlement of disputes at the barangay level.
Established since 1978 it aims to promote the speedy, more just and inexpensive administration of
justice. This community-based approach greatly unclogs cases lodged with the formal criminal
justice system: the police, prosecutors' offices and courts of concealable cases. Settlements and
awards rendered under this system have the force and effect of a final judgment of a court.
 The Katarungang Pambarangay takes charge of all disputes between and among parties
residing in the same village, city or municipality which are punishable by imprisonment not
exceeding one (1) year or a fine not exceeding P5, 000.00. The police, prosecutor or court for
amicable settlement may refer non-criminal cases outside of the coverage of the Katarungang
Pambarangay to the Lupong Tagapamayapa at any time before trial.
This Lupong Tagapamayapa carries out the functions of the Katarungang Pambarangay. The
Barangay Chairman and not less than 10 nor more heads it than 20 members selected every three (3)
years from among the barangay residents or persons working in the barangay. If the Lupon fails to
amicably settle disputes submitted before it, a three-member Pangkat na Tagapagkasundo or
mediation team is constituted from among the Lupong Tagapamayapa to continue conciliatory
efforts.
This form of justice administration enables both the victim and the offender the opportunity
to amicably settle their disputes among people who have more intimate knowledge of them and
therefore the reasons for their disputes. Unlike the formal court of law where the judge and
prosecutor who merely rely on objective appreciation of submitted evidences which many times do
not really represent the truth. That is why decisions are sometimes rendered in favor of the one who
can weave the arguments and even lies better.
For 2001, the Community Pillar prioritized two major projects - the conduct of the Echo-
Seminar on the Criminal Justice System Trainers Training Program and the Implementation of the
Communication Plan for the Criminal Justice System.
These projects address the problem of public apathy and indifference in the criminal justice
system that seriously impedes collective efforts in the prevention and control of crime. It. therefore,
seeks to get the interest and willingness of both individual members of the community and active or
mobilized anti-crime groups to get involved or participate in community based corrections work as a
way to prevent and control crime.
The Criminal Justice System Trainers Training Program is part of the advocacy program on
the criminal justice system. It is being undertaken nationwide to more effectively disseminate
information on the workings of the criminal justice system. The following are its aims:
1. equip the participants with knowledge and skills the
2. to develop core trainers for a comprehensive and effective dissemination
3. to get the commitment of participants on their role members the Speakers' Bureau the
criminal justice system.

To ease the problem prison overcrowding, six government agencies signed Memorandum of
Agreement (MOA) the Jail Decongestion Program 17 February 1993 and, after few months in
operation, was amended on 31 August 1993 make more responsive. The six agencies involved MOA
decongest the BJMP, PAO, the National Prosecution Service (NPS), BUCOR, BPP.
Through this MOA, early release, which should be timely release to serve the end of justice,
of prisoners made possible through maximum implementation of applicable laws such RA 6036
(Release on Recognizance), RA No. 6127 (Grant Full Time Credit), PD No. 968 (Adult Probation
Law), PD No. 603 (Child and Youth Welfare Code) and PD No. 85 (Preventive Imprisonment).
One of the activities initiated by the corrections pillar as way to relieve jail congestion is the
reproduction of posters designed to enhance awareness among inmates of their rights and privileges
and when and how they could be released at the earliest possible time. These posters entitled "Your
Guide to Early Release" were formulated in coordination with the Public Defenders Office.
 The posters provide information on where, when and how the detainee or convict could
obtain release through recognizance and how a finally convicted prisoner could avail of probation
and/ or could be released on parole or pardon A total of 1500 copies of these posters have been
printed and distributed to regional offices of the Parole and Probation Administration, and the
provincial, district, city and municipal jails.
As part of efforts to promote Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), the BJMP trained
42 of its personnel. These 42 trainers were sent to all regions to conduct echo seminars to elementary
schoolchildren to discourage them from getting hooked on drugs and thereby preventing jail
overcrowding in the future.
For the year 2001, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) was able to effect
the timely release of detainees from jails under these three laws. For PD 603, 755 detainees were
released, 337 under BP 85 and 4,170 under RA 6036. This meant considerable savings on an already
financially handicapped government.
Community-based approach to corrections as a way to decongest the prisons involve the
Public Attorney's Office and the National Prosecution Service effecting the immediate release of
detainees either on bail or recognizance and giving priority to the trial of detainees who cannot be
released on bail or recognizance.
It also involves the efficient performance of the Board of Pardons and Parole in the granting
of timely release of prisoners and the effective supervision of released prisoners on parole or
conditional pardon and those under probation by the Parole and Probation Administration Probation
and parole are the two forms of non-institutional, community-based corrections.

EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY

Executive Clemency shall refer to Absolute Pardon, Conditional Pardon with or without
parole conditions and Commutation of Sentence as may be granted by the President of the
Philippines upon the recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Parole. Under the law, the
President has the power to grant pardons, commutations, reprieves, amnesty for all offenses except
impeachment cases and remit fines and forfeitures after the recipient has been convicted.
The Board of Pardons and Parole is the agency in charge with the release of sentenced
prisoners based on modes specified by law. Its actions and proceedings are governed by the
provisions of Section 4 of Act No. 4103, otherwise known as The Indeterminate Sentence Law, as
amended, and Executive Order No. 292, series of 1987, otherwise known as The Administrative
Code of 1987.
The Policy Objectives of the BPP as enunciated in Section 1 of the Rules and Regulations of
the Board of Pardons and Parole states: "Conformably with the basic precepts of justice and mercy, it
shall be the policy of the BPP to uplift and redeem valuable human material to economic usefulness
and to prevent unnecessary and excessive deprivation of personal liberty."

PARDON

Pardon is a form of executive clemency granted by the President of the Philippines as a

privilege extended to a convict as a discretionary act of grace. Neither the legislative nor the judiciary
branch of government has the power to set conditions or establish procedures for the exercise of this
Presidential prerogative. It is highly political in nature and is usually granted in response to popular
clamor or to aid in the return to normalcy of a political situation that might affect the country if not
addressed.
While the laws of every country in the world, looks very good on paper, the intricate
procedures that are attendant to the application of laws are so complicated, even lawvers find it hard
to sort out the intricacies of the law, how much more for the ordinary Filipino who is unlettered and
poor. An innocent man can be sent to prison, and many have suffered that fate because the poor,
unlettered and many times, tortured by law enforcers who just want to make the poor guy the fall guy
so that the law enforcers could include it in their accomplishment reports as solved and gets a good
rating for high crime solution rate.
To prove his innocence, an innocent man requires the services of a lawyer whose
qualification is better than the lawyer of the other side When that other side is wealthy, he can afford
to get the services of the best lawyers of the land that his money can buy Sometimes judges decide in
favor of the rich man because his lawyer was able to make good presentation while the poor lawyer
that the poor can barely afford cannot convince the judge because of his poor performance.
Sometimes judges can be bought. Even former President Joseph Estrada called them
hoodlums in robes. And corrupt judges being caught red-handed are getting to be regular news. So in
some cases, the guilty who are rich gets off the hook while the poor who are innocent is made to
answer for the crime he did not commit. Laws are supposedly made complicated to protect the
innocent but the complicatedness is the very reason why the innocent is made to suffer for crimes he
did not commit.
Under these unpalatable realities, pardon is a safety valve to save the skin of those wrongly
accused and condemned under the guise of justice.
There are two kinds of pardon in the Philippines, absolute pardon and conditional pardon.
Absolute pardon has no conditions attached to it unlike the other pardon, which has attached
conditions; hence, it is called conditional pardon. Absolute pardon is granted upon the
recommendation of the Board of Pardons and Parole to the President through the Secretary of Justice.

Absolute Pardon:

Absolute Pardon refers to the total extinction of the criminal liability of the individual to
whom it granted without any condition whatsoever and restores to the individual his civil rights and
remits the penalty imposed for the particular offense of which he was convicted.

The purposes of absolute pardon are:

1. To right wrong.
Nothing in this world is perfect. Even the administration of justice can escape this
phenomenon. In fact, there now serious move to abolish the death penalty in the United States
because, the use of DNA analysis has proven beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt that
considerable number of convicts executed in the United States in the past has now been clearly and
embarrassingly proven to have been innocent of the crimes imputed to them.
If superrich country like the United States with all the technological wizardry at the disposal
of its crime investigating agencies cannot attain a hundred percent score in bringing the true culprits
to crime to the bar of justice, how much more for poor, backward, Third World underdeveloped
country like the Philippines. The level of ineptness and corruption pervading in our bureaucracy is
exceptional. Many times are law enforcers sent innocent people to prisons simply because their
confessions were extracted through very primitive, unprofessional and unethical methods such as
torture which is equally accepted by an equally primitive, unprofessional and unethical prosecution
and court system. We were not the 11th most corrupt country in the world for nothing.
Under this sort of situation, it is thus that many who were sent to prisons are innocent while
equally many of those who should be behind bars remained scot-free. When those convicted
innocents have exhausted all remedies obtainable through the courts, and there are no more available,
the last recourse in righting that wrong is absolute pardon.

2. To normalize a tumultuous political situation.

Those in power brand critics and oppositionists against an incumbent regime as criminals and
subversives.
They are hounded by the military and police and charged with spurious crimes before a
judiciary that has become a kangaroo court beholden to the ruling powers. When that regime is
successfully toppled, these convicted and imprisoned critics and oppositionists are hailed as freedom
fighters without whose sacrifices, the country would never have been freed from the clutches of a
cruel regime.
This is what happened when President Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law ostensibly to
save the Republic from the onslaught of communists. Immediately, he let loose the military to arrest
more than 70,000 people whom he branded as subversive communists and put them in military
stockades erected beforehand.
A cursory perusal of the list of detained "communists" will show that many are oppositionist
politicians whose only crime is that they have the caliber of presidential timbers who could challenge
Marcos presidency. Many of them were detained without charges. And the few who were charged in
the subservient courts of the time were meted heavy prison sentences and even slapped the penalty of
death by firing squad. A foremost example of these politician oppositionist is the then Senato:

Benigno Aquino, Jr.

When Marcos was toppled by People Power in 1986. one of the first acts of his
successor, the widow of the murdered anti-Marcos oppositionist, ex-Senator Benigno
Aquino, Jr., was to grant absolute pardon to scores of sentenced political prisoners
languishing in prisons.
In another example, when Republic Act 1800 otherwise known as the Anti-
Subversion Law was repealed during the Presidency of former Philippine Constabulary
officer, Fidel V. Ramos, many prisoners sentenced under this law were likewise granted
absolute pardon.

Absolute Pardon is also granted by a President to an imprisoned President the incumbent has
deposed. This has happened in many countries around the world. And even our incumbent President
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has intimated even before the court handed down its decision that should
the deposed President Joseph Estrada be convicted for plunder, she will grant Absolute Pardon to
him.
 Absolute Pardon is granted in order to restore full political and civil rights to convicted
persons who have already served their sentence and have reached the prescribed period for the grant
of Absolute Pardon.
Existing policies regarding the grant of absolute pardon under this scheme is that ten years
after the release from prison must pass before an ex-convict applying for said pardon will be granted
Eventually, the ten-year period was shortened to five years. This waiting period is required to make
sure that the applicant is truly reformed and has been restored to the mainstream of society.
In case of a petition for absolute pardon to restore the full civil and political rights of the
petitioner whose sentence has already expired, the petition shall include the date the petitioner was
released from confinement and the expiry date of his maximum sentence.
Conditional Pardon:

Conditional pardon, on the other hand, refers to the exemption of an individual, within
certain limits or conditions; from the punishment that the law inflicts for the offense he has
committed resulting in the partial extinction of his criminal liability. It is also granted by the
President of the Philippines to release an inmate who has been reformed but is not eligible to be
released on parole.
This is applicable to inmates who were slapped a fixed or determinate sentence or a life
imprisonment who are, otherwise, not eligible for parole. It has the nature of a contract in which the
pardonee agrees to comply strictly with the conditions imposed by the pardon, otherwise, violations
of the conditions will revoke the contract of conditional pardon and the pardonee will be criminally
prosecuted as a violator.
In certain cases, the Board of Pardons and Parole may require a petition for conditional
pardon to be accompanied by a written guarantee of the person with whom the petitioner will reside
that the latter will behave properly upon release from confinement.
Under Article 95 of the Revised Penal Code, a pardon violator upon conviction will be liable
for imprisonment of "prison correctional". But under Article 159 of the Revised Penal Code, if the
un-expired portion of the original sentence of the pardonee exceeds six years, then this more than six
years of pardoned sentence will have to be fully served by the recommitted pardon violator.
To avail of this privilege, a qualified inmate, his family or relative, or upon the
recommendation of prison authorities will file a petition for conditional pardon addressed to the
President The request will be forwarded to the Board of Pardons and Parole, which will process the
same before making their appropriate actions.