PRIVILEGE AND PUNISHMENT

There are two levels of existence in the national prisons and local jails -
" one of privilege and the other one of deprivation. The investigative
series by our Manny B. Marinay and Maricel Cruz on privilege at the
national penitentiary reported how favored inmates enjoyed special comforts
and operated lucrative businesses at the Bilibid prison.

Except for the bars that confined their movement, the privileged prisoners
presided over their premises with multiple perks that are beyond the dreams
and means of the general prison population.

On the other side of privilege is misery. Life in the national
penitentiaries and municipal jails is a daily punishment. While the
Department of Justice, Congress, the courts and the Department of the
Interior and Local Governments profess commitment to penal reforms, a
policy of retribution a " not rehabilitation a " still informs our penal
system.

Life in prison is often called a "living death" because of sordid
conditions on the premises. Severe overcrowding deprives inmates of
sleeping space, proper ventilation and decent elbowroom. The air is
generally fetid. Water is unsafe and may be more life threatening than life
giving. Food is insufficient and lacking in nourishment. Prison
administrations are not at fault. Congress has appropriated only P30 per
prisoner for daily breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Shower rooms and toilets are generally dirty. There is a shortage of
facilities for physical improvement and self-education. Inmate violence
erupts from time to time, from personal harassment to gang fights.
Dangerous weapons are either manufactured inside jails or smuggled into the
premises. Inmate-to-inmate violence may find a match in mayhem committed by
prison guards. Detention officers have been known to abuse female convicts
while deviates feast on minors and younger inmates.

Prison misery is well documented in the minutes of congressional hearings
and reports of international observers that have visited the Philippines.
"A penal monstrosity" for example is how a United Nations team described
conditions in the penal system. I have yet to read a document on prison
life from the DOJ and the DILG.

The latest US State Department annual report on global human rights has
many interesting things to say about the observance of human rights in the
Philippines in 2001, particularly on the treatment of prisoners. Part of
the annual report on the Philippines carries the following observations:

Prison conditions are harsh. Provincial jails and prisons are overcrowded,
have limited exercise and sanitary facilities, and provide prisoners with
an inadequate diet.

The government reported that jails in the metropolitan Manila area were
operating at 250 percent of capacity, and that 85 percent of the inmates
were detainees unable to post bail.

Administrators budget a daily subsistence allowance of about $0.60 (P30).
Prison inmates often depend on their families for food because of the
insufficient subsistence allowance.

Children in some instances are held in facilities not fully segregated from
adult male inmates. There were reports that guards abused prisoners. In
March Amnesty International reported that women in police custody were
particularly vulnerable to sexual and physical assault by police and prison
officials. Victims often were afraid to report incidents.

Official corruption is a serious problem in the prison system. Jail
administrators delegate authority to maintain order to senior inmates. The
CHR reported that beatings by prison guards and other inmates were common,
but prisoners, fearing retaliation, refused to lodge complaints.

Some prominent prisoners and jailed celebrities receive preferential
treatment. Favored inmates reportedly enjoy access to outside contacts,
enabling them to trade in prostitution and drugs.

According to penal authorities, nearly 24,000 persons were incarcerated in
seven national prisons and penal farms at year's end, including 108 minors
imprisoned on specific orders from the sentencing judge. Another 38,000
persons were incarcerated in more than 1,250 district, city and municipal
jails, including more than 2,000 minors; nearly 92 percent of these persons
had not yet been convicted of a crime.

Statistics were not available for the 78 provincial and 29 sub-provincial
jails under the control of local government units nationwide.

In 2000 the CHR conducted a nationwide investigation of prison facilities.
Its advisory opinion cited inhuman conditions in jails and prisons in many
parts of the country. The CHR stated that the Manila city jail was unfit
for human habitation, housing 3,400 inmates in facilities designed to hold
1,000 inmates.

Such conditions, according to the CHR, contributed to violence among
inmates. It also stated that 27 inmates at the Manila jail should have been
confined at a psychiatric facility and that convicted prisoners are
commingled with inmates awaiting trial.

International monitoring groups and the ICRC are allowed free access to
jails and prisons. There were reports that detainees at some facilities
were required to pay guards in order to receive medical attention.

The Senate is inclined to repeal the Death Penalty Law and substitute life
imprisonment without pardon or parole as the maximum sentence. Under the
existing penal system, a lifetime of incarceration does seem to be the
ultimate punishment for a Filipino convicted of a heinous crime. It is not
a pretty option.