BICOL Saro Party-list Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan has urged the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) to ensure that improving the welfare of persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) gets top priority in its plan to intensify the agency’s income-generating activities through joint ventures with the private sector.

Yamsuan issued the call as he commended the recent move by the BuCor under the leadership of Director General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. to partner with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in establishing economic zones (ecozones) in select areas of the Bureau’s penal facilities.

“We laud Gen. Catapang for taking the lead in developing BuCor’s real estate assets through tie-ups with the private sector. This plan is a key factor in transforming the bureau into a modern, highly professionalized and self-sustaining agency,” Yamsuan said.

“As it starts to earn from its business activities, we are optimistic that BuCor would ensure that improving the welfare of the PDLs under its custody would be its top priority in spending its additional income,” said Yamsuan, who has long been advocating for sweeping reforms in the country’s correctional system.

Providing PDLs with decent and habitable quarters, adequate and nutritious food, quality medical care, and well-crafted reformation programs should be first on BuCor’s agenda when it starts to profit from its business ventures, Yamsuan said.

Yamsuan, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), said qualified PDLs should also be given priority in getting jobs in the ecozones and other business ventures of BuCor.

According to Catapang, the BuCor’s land assets total 48,783 hectares “that can be converted into agro- and aqua-culture sites and economic zones.”

The Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm (IPPF), where there is an ongoing project to establish a modern agricultural hub, is a possible site of the first ecozone to be set up by BuCor and PEZA.

Yamsuan said establishing both an agricultural hub and an ecozone in the IPPF complement each other, and can even make BuCor a contributor to the government’s goal of attaining food security.

“The Iwahig penal farm can even become a model for BuCor in uplifting the welfare of PDLs under its care. The twin projects of establishing an agricultural hub and an ecozone in the site will provide PDLs with enough nutritious food, generate additional income for BuCor to elevate their living conditions and give them the opportunity to get decent jobs,” Yamsuan said.

A staunch advocate of reforms in the country’s fragmented correctional system, Yamsuan is the principal author of House Bill 8672, which aims to create a Department of Corrections and Jail Management (DCJM).

Yamsuan said unifying the BuCor with other agencies tasked to manage the country’s jails and parole and probation services will ensure the seamless coordination among the different agencies involved in the administration of justice and the management and care of PDLs.

Under Republic Act 10575 and its implementing rules and regulations, “the BuCor shall have the absolute authority to design, formulate and implement land use development plans and policies” as a way to “maximize its assets’ value for the effective and extensive reformation (corrections) programs for national inmates.”

The law, also known as the BuCor Act of 2013, also states that: “As far as practicable, BuCor shall organize a manpower-intensive economic zone in every penal reservation or through joint venture agreements to generate revenues for prison maintenance and institutional upkeep.”

BuCor is also mandated under the law to use its land assets “for inmate security, reformation programs, and as means to promote sustainability, both for income and non-income generating programs, with or without partnership among NGOs, civic organizations, or other government entities.”