Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's anti-drug campaign is putting prisoners in a difficult situation: Outside they risk being shot, while in prison it's hell.
In 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte promised to “solve drugs, crime and corruption” in three to six months. His war on drugs has been going on for more than a year. The government’s planning seems to have been wrong. Wrong in terms of the scale and nature of the crackdown, as well as legal and infrastructural preparations.
The large number of people incarcerated in a short period of time has caused the prisons, especially Quezon Prison, to become overcrowded.
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| Prisoners sleep in a cramped cell. This photo was taken in the early days of President Duterte's anti-drug campaign. Photo: AFP |
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| AFP said that in the most extreme cases, Quezon prison's facilities can accommodate 800 inmates. But at times the number of inmates can reach 4,000. Photo: AFP |
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| This prison was built with the standard size of holding about 262 prisoners, but currently the number of detainees has reached 2,975, according to Reuters data released on September 1. Photo: Reuters. |
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| Living conditions are poor, with each prisoner estimated to have to share a toilet with about 150 other people. Photo: AFP |
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| Prisoners had to sleep wherever they could, from the hallway to the football field. Photo: AFP |
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| Most prisoners in the Philippines do not have money for bail and so have to stay in jail. Also because they do not have money, they cannot "buy" a nice place to sleep and have to sleep outside. Photo: AFP |
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| Rody Lacanilao, who has been in Quezon for 18 months, said he and his fellow inmates just hope it doesn't rain because then they won't know where to sleep. "Since the war on drugs started, it's been harder to sleep. We don't know where to go when it rains," Lacanilao told Reuters. Photo: AFP |
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| Prisoners on their way to a trial. Most were arrested for drug-related crimes during Mr Duterte’s crackdown. But because of their large numbers, they are often held for long periods before they learn their fate, sometimes for years. Photo: AFP |
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| According to the Institute for Crime Policy Research (ICPR) at Birkbeck (University of London, UK), prisons in the Philippines are the most congested in Asia, with an average overcrowding rate of 316%, meaning there are three times more inmates than capacity. Worldwide, Philippine prisons are the third most overcrowded, after Haiti and Benin. Photo: AFP |
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| The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) said that as of the end of June, the number of prisoners in the Philippines, including convicted criminals and those awaiting trial, had reached 137,417, an increase of 22% compared to the day Mr. Duterte took office as President in June 2016. Photo: AFP |
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| Philippine police and the Drug Enforcement Agency arrested 96,703 suspected drug users and traffickers from July last year to early August, with 94 percent of those detained awaiting trial. According to Oscar Albayalde, the capital's police chief, 100 people are arrested every day. Photo: AFP |
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| According to the BJMP, there are currently 303,534 drug cases pending trial as of June. The Public Defender’s Office (PAO), which is defending these suspects, said 1,665 lawyers are currently handling 709,128 criminal cases currently under trial, meaning each lawyer has to handle 426 cases. Photo: AFP |
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| However, being in prison is... safer for Filipino prisoners. Because it means they have not died like the more than 10,000 others who were swept up in this campaign. "It's safer here. Out there, if the police want to shoot you, they shoot you, and then they say you're a drug dealer," said Jason Madarang, a female prisoner. Photo: Reuters |
According to Tuoi Tre
