New Bilibid Prison back on code blue alert

Transcript

00:00 inside the new Bilibid prison, the Department of Justice has enforced some

00:03 changes to maintain peace and order in the national penitentiary.

00:07 Luisa Erispe has the details.

00:10 Now that the crisis situation at the new Bilibid prison has been contained,

00:16 it's back to cold blue alert or normal status.

00:19 The Department of Justice has new policies put in place to keep things

00:23 under control inside a prison.

00:25 A moratorium set for release soon will stop the transfer

00:29 of newly convicted PDLs inside the NBP.

00:31 We're putting a moratorium on the entry of new prisoners to the national Bilibid compound.

00:38 And we will just bring them to the other jails available.

00:42 Now that we have contained the situation, I ordered the release of the status or

00:49 lowering of status to blue alert, back to normal.

00:53 But of course, we are double the guards now, all their movements are being monitored.

00:58 And then of course, the dalaw, we will put the dalaw first because the excavation is ongoing.

01:07 Instead of the National Jail Facility of the Bureau of Corrections,

01:11 all convicts will henceforth be brought to the Iwahig Prison and Penal Forms in Palawan,

01:16 Sablayan in Occidental, Mindoro, and the Davao Penal Colony.

01:19 For those sentenced to six years and less, they will stay in provincial jails.

01:24 According to experts, it will take a thorough study to determine the prevailing subculture

01:28 inside the NBP in jail facilities all over the country.

01:32 We will give a big picture analysis of why this is happening.

01:36 And in my studies, I always see three things.

01:41 One is the structural conditions, second is the organizational, and third is the cultural.

01:47 However, the DOJ and BU Corps are looking into the possibility

01:51 of discovering connections on incidents in the outside world

01:55 to people or events inside a facility within the week.

01:58 We know what's happening, but we have to keep it under wraps because we are still

02:02 looking at the connections. We are still working on it.

02:05 Whatever it takes to solve this problem, we're doing it.

02:08 That's why we're not turning our backs, we're not closing our minds to our options.

02:14 As of now, an in-depth probe and forensic pathology test on the recovered remains of

02:19 human bones from a septic tank inside the NBP is still ongoing.

02:24 They are also eyeing to excavate other septic tanks to check on their status.

02:28 Louisa Erispe for The Nation.