A PASAY City Jail inmate died from a heart attack last week, while six others were rushed to the hospital when they collapsed, apparently from the summer heat. Overcrowding in the prison on top of the heat appeared to be the immediate cause of the prison incidents.
The section chief, Chief Inspector Wilfredo Sangel, said the Pasay City prison cell was a small 22.8-square meter area designed for 40 inmates, in which 143 prisoners are now kept. Some have already been convicted and are awaiting transfer to facilities of the Bureau of Jail Management, but many are detainees unable to post bail.
It is an old problem of the Philippine National Police (PNP) – this overcrowding in the country’s jails, especially in Metro Manila. In February, 2017, a photographer of international news service Agence France Presse won a prize in the annual World Press Photo contest for a photo showing inmates of the Quezon City jail trying to sleep on the steps of the building’s stairs for lack of space elsewhere in the building.
Later that year, in May, the Senate called for an inquiry following the discovery of a “secret cell” inside the Rexabago police station in Tondo, Manila, where some drug suspects were allegedly being detained until they paid for their freedom. It turned out the “secret cell” was a small space behind a wooden cabinet which the station commander had walled off for 12 people arrested in the anti-drugs drive because there was no more space available in the regular jail cells.
Director General Ronald Bato, chief of the PNP, said he pitied his men running the jail. They were the ones who found ways to maximize the space to solve the congestion, he said, but they now faced a Senate inquiry for holding prisoners in “secret detention places” prohibited by Republic Act 9745, the Anti-Torture Act of 2009.
That was ten months ago and nothing has changed on the problem of congestion in the country’s jails. Following the death in the Pasay City jail last week, PNP spokesman Chief Supt. John Bulalacao said the PNP wants to address the problem but it requires funds that must be included in the budget of the PNP’s Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
In the meantime, he said, the PNP’s new chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde, has vowed to carry on the campaign against drugs and other crimes. There will be more arrests and the new detainees will be further squeezed into the heavily overcrowded jails.
Let us not wait for more hospitalizations and more deaths before the officials concerned take needed action on the jail congestion problem. The long-term solution of funding for new buildings and facilities will take time. But an earnest search must be made for all possible detention space, especially now that the hot summer has begun.
