KARAPATAN criticized the recent statements made by Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Pio Catapang Jr. denying the existence of political prisoners at the New Bilbid Prisons (NBP) or in any prison facility under the BuCor.
Catapang made the statement in response to a petition by 45 political prisoners detained at the NBP, urging the Department of Justice to stop the transfer of political prisoners from the facility to other operating prisons and prison farms.
The BuCor earlier announced that the mass transfers are part of the government’s plan to transform the 375 to 587 hectares of NBP reservation in Muntinlupa City into commercial properties for lease, modeled after Bonifacio Global City, through Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and joint venture projects to generate revenue for the modernization of the country’s correctional system. BuCor has also set the target closure of the NBP by 2028.
“For the information of Director General Catapang, there are 79 political prisoners detained in BuCor facilities, 45 of them are at the NBP, based on KARAPATAN’s documentation. Denying their existence does not address the legitimate problems they raised regarding the ongoing mass transfers,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay.
KARAPATAN said that Catapang’s statement “reveals the severe inadequacy and failure of the Marcos administration’s jail decongestion program due to its gross misunderstanding of social realities in relation to the penal and justice system, including political imprisonment.”
“The 79 political prisoners were wrongfully convicted on trumped up charges. The majority are peasants and peasant organizers whose legitimate work and advocacy were criminalized by the government. At least 12 have already spent 16 to 25 years behind bars, while at least 30 have been imprisoned for 6 years to 15 years. Many of them are elderly and suffer from serious illnesses. If the government were sincere in addressing prison congestion, these political prisoners should have been among the first to be released,” Palabay said.
KARAPATAN added that over the years, families, friends and support groups have painstakingly built systems of support for political prisoners at the NBP. The ongoing mass transfers, it said, will greatly impact and disrupt these systems, as well as impose additional hardship on both prisoners and their loved ones.
“Worse, these transfers are being carried out in the interest of commercial development and profit, instead of genuinely addressing the root causes of prison congestion and injustice. Such a policy is not only opportunistic but also inhumane,” Palabay said.