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PAO's target: Release 'overstaying' detainees in police jails nationwide

Philippines | National

PAO's target: Release 'overstaying' detainees in police jails nationwide

By Jeffrey Damicog

Public Attorney's Office

The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) will now help in ridding jails of police stations in the country of overstaying detainees, PAO Chief Persida V. Rueda-Acosta said on Wednesday, Sept. 14.

“Ngayon tatargetin natin yung police stations (We will be targetting police stations). Kumbaga gagalugarin natin lahat ng jails kung meron pang natitira na dapat lumaya na hindi pa nakakalaya (We will scour the jails to find out if there are detainees who should already be released),” Acosta said.

She said that PAO is already working with the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) to free persons who should no longer be in detention.

She was with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla at the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) headquarters in Muntinlupa City last Tuesday, Sept. 13, during the release of 371 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), including those helped by PAO.

PAO lawyers, she said, have been directed to increase the number of persons they free from detention.

“Bawat public attorney ay magsu-submit sa akin ng report ng napalaya nila (Each public attorney will submit to me a report of those they have freed),” she said.

“Kung napapalaya sa isang buwan ay isang daan, dapat dalawang daan (If they have been freeing 100 persons every month, now it should be 200),” she stressed.

Acosta noted that arrested persons are usually taken to police detention facilities before their transfer to a BJMP facility while their criminal cases are pending in court.

PAO, she said, has been asked to help in decongesting the country’s prisons by looking into the records of PDLs.

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