NBP inmates’ kin to government: Restore visitation rights

MANILA, Philippines - Relatives of inmates detained at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) maximum security compound yesterday demanded that the government restore their visitation rights.

More than a thousand people, most of them wives of NBP inmates, held demonstrations in front of maximum security compound.

AID-Dalaw group president Henedina Javellana, who earlier appealed to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima through a letter last Jan. 14, assisted them.

AID-Dalaw was one of the party-list groups that the Commission on Elections disqualified from running in the 2013 party-list elections during the poll body’s “cleansing” in 2012.

The demonstrations were held even though De Lima told Javellana that she would meet with them soon.

De Lima cancelled the visitation privileges after the grenade explosion last Jan. 8 that killed one inmate and wounded 19 others.

She said these privileges would be cancelled until the probe is over and the person behind the grenade attack has been identified.

Maximum security compound superintendent Richard Schwarzkopf declined to give updates on the probe, but said NBP is speeding up its investigation so visitation privileges would be restored. 

He added that he has talked to the wives of the inmates and appealed for understanding.

To appease them, Schwarzkopf said NBP has set up a post where the wives can leave their packages for their husbands.