The Department of Justice will impose a moratorium on new inmates or persons deprived of liberty (PDL) due to the series of incidents hounding the national penitentiary.
“We’re putting a moratorium on the entry of new prisoners to the NBP compound. We will just bring them to other jails, other prisons available,” Justice Secretary Boying Remulla said in a press conference on Friday.
Remulla said that the moratorium will take effect immediately even though he has yet to write a letter to the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) Director General Gregorio Catapang, Jr.
“I will write to the Director General so that he can tell the courts that it is already a policy of the DOJ not to bring anybody else into the NBP,” Remulla said.
The courts usually order an inmate to be detained in a specific prison or detention facility.
Just this week, a fight ensued between 2 PDLS coming from two different prison gangs that led to a shooting incident and injured some 9 inmates.
Another inmate was found dead with an ice pick wound.
Also reported was the case of a missing inmate who was later found without a head inside a gang’s territory.
Read: Chopped body found in septic tank of New Bilibid Prison
Bones were also discovered in a septic tank which is believed to be one of the mass graves inside the NBP.
“We will stop increasing the population in the NBP. Mababawasan yan pero hindi na yan madadagdagan. ‘Yan na ang pressure na binibigay sa sarili namin para mabawasan na ang congestion tsaka para mabawasan na yung inculturation ng mga taong bago. Ilalagay mo lang sa loob ng isang lugar na parang…napakahirap talagang ispellingin,” he said.
