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[OPINION] Will watching ‘Green Bones’ help decongest our jails?

Over the holidays, I received so many messages from friends that I should watch Green Bones.  I haven’t had a chance to see it but apparently it has moved so many people and opened their eyes to the situation of persons deprived of liberty in our country. I’m glad to hear of this development and happy to hear of a movie that humanizes one of the most stigmatized sectors of our society, reaching a wider audience and enjoy some commercial success. There is much to learn about the situation of our PDLs and I hope watching Green Bones is just the beginning of getting more Filipinos to advocate for their rights.

According to the the World Prison Brief of the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research (ICPR), the top 5 countries with the highest prison occupancy levels (i.e. operating at levels between 300% and 600% of their capacity) are:

  1. Republic of Congo
  2. Cambodia
  3. Uganda
  4. Philippines
  5. Sao Tome & Principe

Not exactly the top 5 we wanted to be a part of and heavy is the head who wears this crown. According to the 2024 Global Prison Trends by Penal Reform International and the Thai Institute of Justice, between 2000 and 2022, the average number of people held in pre-trial detention was 29.5% of the prison population. In the Philippines, the rate of “pre-trial” detention as of September 2022 was at over 65%, according to the World Prison Brief — more than twice the global average. This means that for every 100 people in our jails and prisons, 65 of them still have pending cases, thus supposedly still presumed innocent.

The Philippine prison population as of June 2024 was at over 171,000 with over 53,000 in Bureau of Corrections prisons and over 117,000 in jails managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, according to the World Prison Brief. The Philippine penal system is described as “fragmented,” with those detained after conviction held in prisons by the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) under the Department of Justice (DOJ) while those still in “pre-trial” detention or with pending criminal cases held in jails managed by the BJMP under the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

Over the years there have been many efforts to decongest our jails and address the situation of our PDLs. The Supreme Court has issued several circulars to improve the judicial process and to protect the rights of the accused to a speedy trial and disposition of their cases. But if the situation in our jails is any indication, it seems the circulars aimed at speeding up judicial processes have not been able to catch up with the rate at which people are being arrested and detained.

The Supreme Court and the judiciary should not be the only institutions working at addressing jail congestion. How about the other government institutions involved in our criminal justice system? Perhaps to answer this question, a Philippine National Jail Decongestion Summit was organized in December 2023. Various government agencies, nongovernment organizations, and other stakeholders gathered to discuss the situation in our jails and the issues in the justice system encountered by PDLs and to find ways to address them.

In a December 2023 ABS-CBN News report, some recommendations coming out of the summit were a comprehensive review of the Revised Penal Code to decriminalize some offenses like libel and abortion, and to reclassify some crimes that are presently non-bailable. These are welcome developments, especially considering that the Revised Penal Code is indeed outdated and long overdue for a review. However, the important questions we need to ask are: How will this review of the Revised Penal Code have an effect on the congestion of our jails? Will the offenses proposed to be decriminalized actually have much of an impact? How many of those held in our jails are charged with libel and abortion?

Another ABS-CBN News report also published in December 2023 quotes BJMP Director Ruel Rivera as saying that most persons deprived of liberty are drug offenders, “accounting for around 70% of the jail population.”

If we really want to decongest our jails, aside from reviewing and amending the Revised Penal Code, we must also review and amend our drug law. This was one of the main recommendations to come out of national sectoral consultations held in preparation for the Philippine Drug Policy and Law Reform Summit held last July 2024. Yes, another summit, I’m sorry, but this was the first time there was a conversation between representatives from different government agencies including law enforcement, local governments, nongovernment organizations, and community organizations about how the drug law has affected our justice system and our communities in such a profoundly harmful way. 

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Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act took effect in 2002 and has been the main driver of incarceration and jail congestion in the Philippines especially under Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs.”  The House quad committee’s hearings on extrajudicial killings also shed light on how this law provided legal cover for police operations that ended up with the killing of thousands of Filipinos. Unfortunately, the scope and scale of the issues exposed by the House Quad Committee hearings, despite the courage and bravery of the witnesses, especially the families of the EJK victims, was not able to extend to how Duterte’s drug war also gravely harmed the Philippine justice system.

The harms caused to the Philippine justice system was highlighted in a report published by Rappler’s Lian Buan in May 2024, entitled “Duterte’s Drug War Pushes Prisons To A Breaking Point,” where BJMP Spokesperson Jayrey Bustinera acknowledged that majority of PDLs in BJMP jails are there for drug cases. He also said that the jail congestion rate during the Duterte administration rose to over 600%. This meant that 61 detainees had to share a cell meant for only 10 people.

The same report also showed how Duterte’s war on drugs affected the workload of the PubIic Attorney’s Office who had to resort to relying heavily on plea bargaining with a lawyer-to-client ratio of 1 to 4,997. The PAO chief of Quezon City also said that during the Duterte administration, so many drug cases were filed that almost all the Regional Trial Courts had to hear drug cases. This affects the hearing of non-drug cases as well because the huge volume of drug cases filed has also congested the courts. Congested courts mean delays in the hearing of cases and prolonged detention for those who are in jails. There is clearly a need to prioritize the review of the drug law because as the BJMP spokesperson said, alternatives to imprisonment are welcome but “if we really want to make a big impact, maybe it’s better to focus on drug cases because 70% of those incarcerated or awaiting trial or maybe in trial, are drug cases.”

What should we do about people who use drugs then? Akbayan Representative Perci Cendana has filed a bill called the “Public Health Approach to Drug Use Act,” which seeks to provide for community-based health and social support programs with the Department of Health as the lead agency. At the local level, the bill also mandates local government units to implement community-based health and social support programs for people who use drugs, including case management, counseling, relapse management, and other evidence-based services. The bill also calls for the diversion of people who use drugs towards these health programs instead of arrest and incarceration. These provisions are consistent with what LGUs with successful community-based programs are already doing. The difference is that people who use drugs no longer need to be arrested and incarcerated before they can participate or avail of them. This would also be consistent with international human rights standards on the right to health that should be made available to everyone, including people who use drugs.

How will community-based health and social support programs for people who use drugs benefit the justice system? It will relieve the courts, prosecutors, public attorneys, jails, and even law enforcement agencies from the already overwhelming burden of handling so many drug-related cases when a health-based response would have been more appropriate and effective. It will prevent people from having to go through the trauma and stigma brought about by arrest and incarceration. It will reduce opportunities for police corruption and abuse of human rights. Hopefully it will also repair the harms and damage caused by Duterte’s drug war in our communities. – Rappler.com

Mary Catherine “Cathy” Alvarez is a lawyer working for the human rights of marginalized communities. She is preparing for the next BTS concert.

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