P50.2-B new prison facility to generate 53,800 jobs in NE

PALAYAN CITY, Nueva Ecija–The plan to transfer the New Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City to Nueva Ecija through the construction of a P50.2-billion regional prison facility (RPF) is expected to generate at least 53,800 jobs to Novo Ecijanos, its proponents said yesterday.

          In a project presentation of the proposed NBP at the Sierra Madre Suites here yesterday, architect Armando Alli, adviser of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) Center, said the two-storey new facility will be constructed under the build-transfer-maintain structure at a 500-hectare area in Barangay Nazareth in Gen. Tinio town inside the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation.

          The project was presented during a public hearing called by Gov. Aurelio Umali amid concerns over its environmental and socio-economic impact in the province.

          The project will be a joint undertaking of the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Corrections.

Alli said that based on estimates, the construction will require 40,000 workers, some 4,800 custodial and rehabilitation officers and 9,000 people for prison maintenance.

Umali said the national government should prioritize Novo Ecijanos for employment and source of construction materials.

He said Novo Ecijanos should carefully weigh the pros and cons of the project amid issues over its environmental impact in the adjoining communities.

Teodora Diaz, BuCor assistant director, said the facility will have a maximum capacity of 26,000 inmates. She said they expect the project to be approved by the Investments Coordinating Committee of the National Economic and Development Authority within this month and by the NEDA Board of Directors next month.

The bidding has been set in February 2015, contract-signing in April 2015 and actual construction will start in October 2015. Construction will take three years.      

          To be transferred are 20,000 inmates from the NBP and 2,000 from the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City.  

          President Aquino earlier indicated he wants to have the NBP to be transferred by year-end to the FMMR.

DOJ Undersecretary Francisco Baraan, the department’s  supervising official on the BuCor and the NBP, said the new facility  will follow international standards.

He said that at present, prison conditions in the various penal facilities in the country leave much to be desired, citing those in Muntinlupa, Palawan and Davao.

“I saw correctional facilities in Japan, Canada and Australia and our facilities pale in comparison, he said, adding that Muntinlupa, for one, does not look like a prison facility at all and constitutes cruel and degrading punishment to the prisoners.

The 551-hectare NBP in Muntinlupa , which opened in 1940, is now heavily congested as it houses 14,500 prisoners in its maximum security detention area alone although it was programmed to accommodate only 8,400 inmates. All in all, the NBP houses around 20,000 inmates.        

The government plans to convert the Muntinlupa penitentiary, valued at around P42 billion,  into a mixed-use commercial area.

The plan to transfer the NBP to the province dates back to a decade ago. Umali recalled that as early as 2004, his predecessor, then-governor Tomas Joson III, had been scouting for a site in Talugtug town but the plan did not push through.   

In May 2012, the Aquino administration has been working to carry out the transfer of the NBP and the CIW.

The plan to transfer the 20,000 inmates from the NBP and 2,000 inmates from the CIW was pursued after local officials in Tanay, Rizal opposed an earlier order to transfer them there.

In 2006, Aquino’s predecessor, then-president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo issued Executive Order 568 authorizing the transfer of the NBP to a 272-hectare reservation in Barangay Cuyambay in Tanay.

The public hearing was attended by city and municipal mayors and vice mayors and other local officials. (Manny Galvez)