But for the estimated 27,000 inmates housed at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, it can translate to better daily food provisions.
Bureau of Corrections (BUCOR) Director Dionisio Santiago has filed a recommendation in Congress to increase the food allowance of each inmate from P30 to P40 a day.
"So far Congress has been supportive," he said in a recent interview.
Although the NBP provides three meals a day to inmates, the government’s budget is only for 25,000 inmates. Since the NBP’s current population is 27,000, Santiago said they are experiencing shortage in food rations.
This is the reason why some relatives of inmates bring lunch packs to the NBP everyday.
NBP Superintendent Francisco Abunales, however, said that the P10 increase they are asking will hardly be noticed once granted since they purchase food supplies in bulk.
To make ends meet and to meet the inmates’ nutritional needs at the same time, they have devised a unique system. For example, if they are serving a cheap vegetable meal today, they would use the savings to augment tomorrow’s menu with protein foods such as beef or pork. — Evelyn Macairan