Model farms: Cons lead way

A program to rehabilitate inmates by making them productive as farmers can become the template for food sufficiency in the country's communities, like the kibbutz system in Israel.

A kibbutz is a communal settlement in which the wealth is shared, and the profits are reinvested in the settlement.

The first kibbutz was founded in 1909, and there are currently about 270, with a total population exceeding 120,000 in that nation.

Some 40 hectares of Bureau of Corrections land at Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm, or IPPF, in Puerto Princesa, Palawan has been planted to hybrid rice by detainees as part of the Reformation Initiative for Sustainable Environment for Food Security, or RISE, a brainchild of BuCor Director General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr.

Catapang said 200 persons deprived of liberty, or PDLs, will be transferred to IPPF to begin lives on the supervised farms.

Aside from providing PDLs with income, the program will help decongest the main penitentiaries, such as the maximum security New Bilibid Prison, or NBP, in Muntinlupa City.

"There will come a time when most agricultural produce will be sourced from BuCor lands tilled and farmed by PDLs," Catapang said.

He said the IPPF could take in at least 1,000 inmates more after the initial 200 PDLs are transferred to the penal colony.

When Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla visited the prison complex last Thursday morning, IPPF Superintendent Gary Garcia reported that aside from hybrid rice, more than three hectares have been planted with vegetables and cashews.

Garcia said Remulla was impressed by the project.

Remulla was in Palawan for the launch of the country's first "Green Justice Zone" spearheaded by the Supreme Court, Department of Justice, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to help facilitate legal and judicial services on environmental issues.

Farms to cover 501 hectares

The RISE project uses at least 501 of the 28,788.54 hectares of the IPPF and is divided into farms for assorted vegetables at 4.5 hectares; cashew, 30 hectares; rice, 40 ha; corn, 25 ha; fruit and herbs as edible landscaping, one ha; tilapia raising, half a hectare; and livestock raising for meat and dairy production, 400 ha.

RISE will also address one of the agriculture sector's key concerns of aging farmers and nobody taking their place since the PDLs will be trained as farmers.

The project will make both the detention facilities and the detainees relevant, sustainable, and respected, Catapang said.

"We will be surprised that the food on our table came from plantations tended by PDLs. When that happens, the PDLs will attain dignity and not be considered a social burden. It may also change the public perception of the BuCor," he said.

The project will also contribute to the reformation of PDLs and prepare them "to live normal and productive lives upon reintegration to mainstream society," Catapang added.

DA, Bucor, private

firms as partners

Catapang signed an agreement with the Department of Agriculture and several private companies on 18 August to establish a RISE demonstration farm.

Under the scheme, PDLs who succeed as farmers will be given larger plots within the penal farm.

RISE participants were selected based on their planting skills and training under the Farm Teach program of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

RISE participants also earn credits for good conduct time allowance aside from compensation or gratuities being considered.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said the program would help boost production and give PDLs "opportunities to realize their potential for positive change and reformation."

"Achieving (RISE's) objectives will also contribute to much greater humanitarian causes such as the rehabilitation and reintegration of PDLs and ensure hunger prevention, poverty alleviation, and better health," he added.

Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said the project will include PDLs sentenced to more than three years in prison as provided in the Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013.

The RISE project will be implemented in other BuCor facilities after its pilot testing at Iwahig.