Juvenile
...for new Quezon City jail By M. PUNONGBAYANTODAY Correspondent Councilors asked the government to release funds for the construction of a new jail facility in Quezon City. The move seeks to solve the problem of untimely deaths, riots, and disease outbreaks within the already congested Quezon City Jail. At least eight councilors led by Jorge Banal Jr. are pushing for the immediate passage of a proposed resolution urging Congress to appropriate funds for the construction of a new building to house inmates. The two-page measure, filed on Thursday, took note of the present situation in the detention center wherein 3,200 inmates are occupying a facility fit only for 900 persons. The number of detainees, Banal said, exceeds the maximum capacity by 2,300 which is resulting to numerous problems. "Overcrowding has brought about subhuman and deplorable living conditions inside the jail facility,” he explained. “This has been leading to untimely deaths from various diseases, psychological distress, and trauma,” Banal stressed. “To allow the continuing deplorable and intolerable conditions constitute violations of human rights which needs to be urgently addressed and acted upon,” he added. Banal said the Quezon City government has already found a suitable place where a new jail facility may be erected. Planning and development officials were able to find a suitable location in Barangay Payatas where government-owned lands are available. Banal said Congress may appropriate funds and release the same to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG). The DILG exercises supervision and control over jail facilities in the country through the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (bjmp). Banal’s proposed resolution is already being supported and coa...