(Eagle News)–The joint Senate panel probing the problems in the Bureau of Corrections has recommended the establishment of a separate jail facility for convicts of heinous crimes.
The Senate committees on justice and human rights, public order and dangerous drugs and finance made the recommendation through Senate Bill No. 1055, which was based on the bills separately filed by Senate President Tito Sotto and Senators Richard Gordon and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
Sotto’s Senate Bill No. 2 sought for a separate prison for high-level drug offenders still under the BuCor, while Gordon and Zubiri, through Senate Bills No. 983 and 1004, respectively, sought for a facility for all convicts of heinous crimes.
The filing of the bills came following the revelation several high-profile inmates pay unscrupulous Bureau of Corrections personnel to temporarily get out of prison or to altogether get out of prison through the Good Conduct Time Allowance law.
Based on Senate Bill No. 1055, whose authors were listed as Sotto, Gordon, Zubiri and Senator Bato dela Rosa, the maximum penal institution shall be established in a place within the jurisdiction of a military installation or on an island that is separate from the mainland.
The facility should have surveillance cameras, clean sleeping areas and bathrooms, and should be regularly visited by representatives of the Department of Justice.
The panel report is expected to be discussed in the plenary next week. With a report from Meanne Corvera
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