‘Construction of P50-B prison in Nueva Ecija to push through’

CABANATUAN CITY, Philippines – Outgoing Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali gave assurance the proposed P50.2-billion New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Gen. Tinio town will push through despite the reluctance of outgoing President Aquino to approve it over fears he might be accused of pursuing a midnight deal.

Umali said he had talked with Aquino and the latter gave his go-signal for the project, but Aquino would let the incoming administration of president-elect Rodrigo Duterte pursue the project.

“Insofar as President Aquino is concerned, he supports the project. And I’m sure it will happen,” said Umali, who will be succeeded by his wife, three-term third district Rep. Czarina Umali.

The modern facility is planned to be set up inside the Fort Magsaysay Military Reservation where the President’s father, former senator and democracy icon Benigno Aquino Jr., was placed under solitary confinement during Martial Law.

Aquino said if he would have his way, he would have a correctional facility built in the province before the end of his term. But he is reluctant to approve the public-private partnership (PPP) project as he might be accused of pursuing a midnight deal.

Aquino explained that he found out the documentation for the big-ticket project would be finalized on June 29, a day before he steps down from office.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. reminded Aquino that the project would be awarded on June 29 to complete the process.

“I will step down from office at noon of June 30. Of course, there will be some questions that the project might be a midnight deal,” the President said.

Novo Ecijanos already accepted the project, which is expected to generate at least 53,800 jobs.

The two-story facility will be constructed as a build-transfer-maintain project on a 500-hectare area in Barangay Nazareth inside Fort Magsaysay as a joint undertaking of the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

Teodora Diaz, BuCor assistant director, said the facility would have a maximum capacity of 26,000 inmates. To be transferred are 20,000 inmates from the NBP and 2,000 from the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City. 

The bidding was set in February 2015, seven months after it was presented to Umali and other local officials.

The contract was supposed to be signed in April 2015 and the actual construction was supposed to start last October. Construction will take three years. However, the schedule was delayed.

Former 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, conditions in penal facilities like those in Muntinlupa, Palawan and Davao leave much to be desired.

“I saw correctional facilities in Japan, Canada and Australia and our facilities pale in comparison,” he said.