THE overpopulation of our prisons has long been one of our major problems in the Philippine justice system. Photos have been published abroad showing half-naked Filipino prisoners trying to sleep right on the stairs of their prisons because here Is no place to stretch out in the cells.
The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated this problem into a crisis. The virus has been killing people around the world, claiming new victims who come close enough to inhale the virus in droplets in coughs, sneezes, in the very breath of already infected victims.
In the absence of a vaccine or cure for COVID-19, the World Health Organization can only prescribe “social distancing” as a way to hold down infections from person to person. A distance of one meter is now standard for people in rare gatherings and in lines to receive relief goods from the government. But a new study has found that the coronavirus can travel up to 13 meters in the air.
In the face of a situation in the nation’s prisons which could lead to many COVID-19 deaths, the House of Representatives Committee on Justice headed by Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso has proposed the temporary release of elderly prisoners, those with underlying health conditions, and first-time offenders. The proposal was immediately endorsed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Even before the virus outbreak, Secretary of Justice Menardo Guevarra said he had ordered the Bureau of Corrections and the Board of Pardons and Parole to expedite the release of elderly and sick prisoners and recommended the grant of executive clemency to qualified detainees.
The relatives of 22 prisoners, most of them senior citizens, petitioned the Supreme Court for their release through bail, recognizance, and other means in order to decongest the jails, which are now in great danger of becoming centers COVID-19 infections and death. Their petition to the Supreme Court was filed with the aid of the Public Interest Law Center and the National Union of People’s Lawyers.
We commend all these efforts – which, we note, encompass all three of the nation’s branches of government – which should help ease the congestion in our nation’s prisons. We hope the bureaucracy will be able to move as fast as needed to carry out the Department of Justice’s directives on elderly and sick prisoners.
