Memo bans 'tilapia' in maximum security compound

MANILA, Philippines -  The chief of the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) issued Monday a memorandum banning prostitutes and unauthorized persons from entering the state penitentiary.

Superintendent II Ramon Reyes ordered the Inmates Visitation Services Unit to “put an end” to “the practice of sending notes to allow the entry of unauthorized visitors.” He also said the IVSU should report such incidents to prison authorities.

Reyes said some of the notes use his name, his office, and the officer-in-charge of the maximum security compound.

Reyes’s memorandum is an offshoot of the September 2010 memorandum of his predecessor Armando Miranda, which explicitly stated the reports on “rampant entry of prostitutes and unauthorized persons” into the maximum security compound.

Miranda said these unauthorized persons include “custodial and civilian personnel who are off duty and with no official business” who allegedly stay at the maximum compound “even beyond visiting or office” hours.

The STAR earlier reported that sex workers, called “tilapia” are “peddled like fish” to rich prisoners, particularly the Chinese convicts, inside NBP’s maximum compound.

An informant alleged that the prostitute can enter the prison compound with the help of some jail guards who receive bribes ranging from P1,000 to P2,000. Once the woman is in, a prisoner in connivance with the prostitute and her pimp would take her around the compound to prospective clients.

The woman can earn P3,500 to P10,000, depending on her physical attributes and how convicts would avail of her services.

Another source said a sex worker can also enter the premises by acquiring a fake identification card bearing the name of anyone recorded in a prisoner’s “karpeta,” or list of legitimate visitors.

Reyes previously said he has heard of the alleged anomaly concerning tilapia and ordered an investigation into it. He explained that these tilapia “are prostitutes who pretend to be relatives of the legitimate visitors so they can enter the compound.”

In a separate interview with The STAR, IVSU chief Estrella Planas denied that prostitutes can freely go in and out of the jail. She stressed that her office has been “very strict” in screening visitors.

She added that it would be very difficult and “offending” to accuse a visitor of being a sex worker. “I might be charged before the Ombudsman,” Planas said.