I have been imprisoned inside the maximum security compound of the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) and the first thing I did was to make my mind busy to study what life is inside. The maximum security compound is like a volcano waiting to erupt. No general can ever solve the mystery of that compound. Only a person who uses common sense can do the job. Former BuCor (Bureau of Corrections) director Vicente Vinarao, after sincere consultation with a core group of inmates, did some wonders inside, using common sense.
Based on newspapers and TV reports, nobody could even categorically say how the guns got inside. A prison guard enters the maximum security compound with two guns. He goes out with only one, sometimes none. Vinarao prohibited prison guards to carry guns inside the compound, it worked wonders also.
I have read books, watched movies about penitentiaries in other countries. Prison guards are not armed inside. How did we close one entry route of drugs during the time of Vinarao? Inside the maximum security compound, they were tending to hundreds of homing pigeons. Visitors brought out the pigeons allegedly to cook into food, but they would tape drugs on them and release them to fly back to the compound. Indeed, it’s more fun in the Philippines!
The only correct statement I heard from incumbent BuCor Director Franklin Bucayu is prison modernization. In other countries, they give real attention to their prison system because it is one of the pillars of the justice system. Common sense dictates that when one pillar is not working, the entire system fails! In Sweden, there is ZERO recidivism.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima should respect and consult inmates inside the NBP and those released with “flying” colors. Use common sense and that “Bilibid Mystery” will
be solved!
—JUNIPER C. DOMINGUEZ,
former prisoner, Mountain Province