November 18, 2024 - At an event at its Headquarters in Muntinlupa, the Bureau of Corrections (BuCOR), accompanied by top officials of the Department of Justice and the European Union Ambassador to the Philippines, has announced the completion of the digitization of the records of inmates currently serving sentences inside its correctional facilities.
Amounting to more than 50,000, the individual paper dossiers -also known as carpetas- were digitized with the support of the European Union’s Governance in Justice programme (EU-GOJUST), which provided equipment and technicians to scan all paper records and complete them with the PDLs’ biometric data.
A carpeta includes all of a Person Deprived of Liberty’s (PDL) basic information from biometric description to sentencing. Kept safe at BuCor's main headquarters in Muntinlupa City, paper records’ had to be scanned and faxed every time they had to be consulted by BuCor’s correctional facilities outside Metro Manila. The newly-digitized records will allow all of BuCOR’s facilities to access their inmates’ files, facilitating their monitoring of PDLs cases, including the timely identification of those eligible for release.
The Philippines are amongst the countries with the highest levels of jail congestion worldwide. The digitisation of PDLs records together with the interconnection of the justice sector institutions, should allow for a fail proof and speedy processing of PDLs cases. Both are amongst the measures the Philippines Justice authorities have identified as key to decongest their correctional facilities.
According to the institution’s own data, as of May 2024, BuCORs prisons are at 239% overcapacity.
“The main objective of the EU’s GOJUST programme is to promote access to justice to all, in the Philippines, including Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs). And I am therefore very proud that the EU’s support to digitisation of carpetas, and our support to the building of the National Justice Information System, will help agencies in their efforts to decongest prisons” said EU Ambassador to the Philippines Massimo Santoro, at the event.
Laptops, high-speed scanners, webcams, and biometric equipment provided by the EU-GOJUST should allow BuCOR to digitize the carpetas of any future inmates. Efforts are also underway to connect the BuCOR’s digital database with the other correction agencies like Board of Pardons and Parole (BPP), the Parole and Pardon Administration (PPA), and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). Once completed and connected to the National Justice Information System (NJIS), these other agencies will also have access to the digitized carpetas.
“The path we are paving towards the seamless administration of justice is becoming clearer, and the goal at the end of the road is beginning to take shape. We improve our systems to provide real-time justice for all, regardless which side of the justice system you are on,” said Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla.
EU-GOJUST’s support to BuCor’s digitalization program amounted to more than 12 million Philippine pesos. This project supports the Philippines’ compliance with one of the commitments in the Fourth Philippine Human Rights Plan, currently being prepared by the Presidential Human Rights Committee Secretariat (PHRCS).
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With a total grant of EUR19 million (Php 1.1 billion) over a period of four years, the European Union’s Governance in Justice (EU-GOJUST) programme supports the Government of the Republic of the Philippines’ efforts to improve access to justice for all Filipinos, and thus contribute to inclusive and sustainable socio-economic development.
EU-GOJUST works with the Philippine Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government to develop more responsive and accountable justice services in the country. Through a grants facility, the Programme works with universities and civil society organizations in improving access to justice for women, LGBTQI+, indigenous communities and other vulnerable groups.
In addition, EU-GOJUST aims to strengthen the Commission on Human Rights to help it carry out its constitutional mandate of civil and political rights protection and enhance human rights promotion in the Philippines.
This component is co-funded with the Spanish Agency for Development Cooperation (AECID), with an additional EUR 1 million (Php 59.47 million).”
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Media Contacts:
Kristine Buenafe: kristinegraceb@unops.org
Thelma Gecolea: Thelma.GECOLEA@eeas.europa.eu
Website: https://www.gojust.org/