CEBU, Philippines - Fifty male minimum security inmates of the Bureau of Corrections (BUCOR) from the Leyte Regional Prison in Abuyog, Leyte have arrived at Camp General Macario Peralta in Jamindan, Capiz, which will be their home during their remaining years of imprisonment. The inmates will be co-living with the Philippine Army’s 3rd Infantry Division personnel in the 33,310 hectare-camp. An acceptance ceremony and signing of the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was held yesterday morning to formalize the inmates’ stay at the 3rd ID headquarters.
Lieutenant Col. Aniano Orap-Orap Jr., commander of 3rd ID’s Headquarters and Headquarters Service Battalion, and Insp. Danilo Rufloe of BUCOR, representing Supt. Robert Rabo, signed the MOA.
Part of the MOA stipulates that both parties agreed that BUCOR shall provide the 3rd ID a number of inmates who are classified as minimum security inmates. The housing of inmates shall be provided by 3rd ID in a specific place inside the military reservation with the inmates’ subsistence to be provided by BUCOR.
Major Gen. Jose Mabanta Jr., commander of the 3rd ID, told the inmates: “We welcome you at kami ay natutuwa to have you here. We will look at you now as part of the 3rd ID, even as we know your status, with some of you to be freed within a few years. With you under our care, you now become part of the Spearhead family.”
Major Enrico Gil Ileto, 3rd ID spokesman, clarified that the inmates will continue to be under the strict supervision of BUCOR guards during their stay in the camp. He also brushed off fears that the inmates could be a threat to those living inside camp. “They were chosen by the BUCOR; they were already assessed if they could mingle with non-inmates,” he added.
Ileto said the program was first started at the PMA headquarters at Fort del Pilar in Baguio City then at the 2nd Infantry Division in Camp Mateo Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal and at the 7th ID in Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.
While undergoing the necessary transition, reformation and rehabilitation as they are about to fulfill the required years of stay, the inmates will also help the soldiers in the maintenance of the immediate cantonment area of the camp such as the maintenance of cleanliness of its immediate surroundings.
Colonel Wilson Leyva, 3rd ID chief of staff, said they have prepared programs that will allow the inmates to gain more knowledge and skills, especially on preservation of the environment. “These are the skills necessary as they prepare themselves to go back to mainstream society. I am sure that they will enjoy their stay here,” he said.
The transfer of the inmates from the prison in Leyte has been part of the pronouncement of President Benigno Aquino III last Jan. 27, on decongesting the inmates population at BUCOR, an attached agency of the Department of Justice.
Mabanta said the endeavor is another “whole of nation approach” under the Internal Peace and Security Plan “Bayanihan.”
“What is more important inside the camp is the discipline that we have, which I also see in you present. I know that this discipline will also be inculcated in you. I am also sure that our chaplain has plans for your spiritual guidance. We have prepared a lot of things for you. From the bottom of our hearts, we welcome you,” Mabanta told the inmates. (FREEMAN)