The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) yesterday disclosed that as part of their continuing master decongestion plan at least 500 persons deprived of liberty (PDL) from the New Bilibid Prison were transferred this week to Davao Prison and Penal Farm in Davao Del Norte.

BuCor Director General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. said the PDLs left the NBP on board 15 buses on 16 March and arrived on 18 March at DPPF safe and sound.

The PDLs were escorted by 144 corrections officers composed of medical personnel, SWAT, and Escort Team headed by CSINS Roberto Butawan and assisted also by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“The transfer of PDLs from various operating prisons and penal farms is also part of our preparation for the closure of the NBP,” Catapang said.

Meanwhile, Catapang said he will study the possibility of an after-care program for persons deprived of liberty who have been released from the correction facilities.

Catapang was the resource person this morning together with Pastor Gary Galvez who is a former PDL, at the Agenda forum at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan hosted by former Immigration Commissioner Siegfried Mison.

Galvez, who shared his experience as a former PDL, told Catapang that one of the programs lacking for PDLs is the after-care program, saying when a PDL is released after serving his sentence or even after parole, as they do not know what to do and where to go those who do not want to go back to their families or no families at all.

Catapang explained that it is an eye-opener since the bureau is preoccupied with solving the challenges at hand and the problems encountered when he assumed the leadership of BuCor and “now we can also take a look at that.”

The BuCor chief who agrees with Galvez that the reformation especially the livelihood program inside the BuCor facilities is enough to equip the PDLs to be able to rejoin the society, Catapang said that the memorandum of understanding he signed recently with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) will bolster their program to help the PDLs and their families.

Under the said MOU, the PDLs will be part of the workforce in the planned economic zone to be put up at the lot owned by the BuCor, the Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.