MANILA, Philippines — Inside the Philippines’ overcrowded prison facilities, 76 Bureau of Corrections inmates are placed under isolation for possible infection of the novel coronavirus that has claimed more than 300 lives in the country.
President Rodrigo Duterte reported to the Congress that as of April 7, there are 74 Persons Deprived of Liberty and 80 BuCor personnel who are considered Persons Under Monitoring.
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Until the Department of Health’s reclassification over the weekend, PUMs are those who are asymptomatic with travel history to countries with local transmission and may have had exposure to a confirmed COVID-19 case.
Duterte also said that there are two PDLs and one bureau personnel deemed Persons under Investigation or those who show symptoms of COVID-19 and had exposure to a confirmed case.
The DOH no longer uses these classification and adapted provisions from the World Health Organization’s interim guidance on global surveillance for COVID-19 which are: “suspect,” “probable” and “confirmed.”
“These PUMs and PUIs are being monitored for symptoms and have been isolated from the rest of prison facilities and have been isolated from the rest of the prison population in designated quarantine and isolation areas in various BuCor facilities,” Duterte told the Congress.
As additional measures to protect the inmates, the president said: “Temporary tents are being used for PDLs to decongest prison buildings at the [New Bilibid Prison] and a COVID-19 24-hour Monitoring Center has been established in the NBP Administration Building.”
The bureau has also coordinated with partner hospitals for transport of these PUMs and PUIs for medical treatment, Duterte added.
During a Senate hearing on Oct. 3, 2019, NBP hospital director Ernesto Tamayo said around 20% of maximum security inmates die every year mostly due to overcrowding, The STAR reported.
There are around 27,165 inmates at the maximum security area, which can only accommodate 6,435, for a congestion rate of 322%.
Release of the sickly, elderly inmates
Calls for release of the elderly, ailing and vulnerable prisoners from several rights groups and Sen. Leila De Lima continue to mount as COVID-19 infections rise.
A group of inmates sought temporary release order from the Supreme Court last week, citing that the Philippines will record a staggering number of fatalities in our overcrowded prisons if the virus infects an inmate.
They sought for the SC’s “compassion and protection of their right to life and health amid the COVID-19 pandemic” and asked that they may be released on humanitarian grounds.
“Needless to say, the continued incarceration of petitioners who are sick and elderly would be a virtual death sentence,” their plea read.
The Department of Social Welfare and Development backed the Rep. Vicente Veloso (Leyte)’s proposal to create an ad hoc committee to “immediately evaluate the situation of all provincial, city and municipal jails and other detention facilities and to establish guidelines and procedures for the temporary release of qualified [PDLs] for humanitarian reasons.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, meanwhile, said his department asked the Corrections bureau to expedite the processing the release of sickly and elderly inmates even before the COVID-19 broke out.