DOJ in talks for mass COVID-19 testing at Mandaluyong women’s prison

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is discussing the possibility of conducting mass COVID-19 testing at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, where 19 prisoners and one staff member have contracted the virus.

"We are now talking to certain parties, including the Red Cross, for the conduct of mass testing at the CIW," Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a message to reporters on Tuesday.

Eighteen more inmates and one staff member at the CIW have tested positive for COVID-19, a few days after the Bureau of Corrections announced its first confirmed case: a 72-year-old woman who has diabetes and was diagnosed with community acquired pneumonia.

Guevarra said they are responding to the situation "with dispatch."

"The CIW has been instructed to immediately isolate these cases in its own quarantine facilities and bring to the hospital any PDL (person deprived of liberty) who manifests serious symptoms," the Justice chief said.

He said he has told Undersecretary Deo Marco, who supervises the BuCor, and bureau chief Gerald Bantag, to give "priority attention" to the BuCor's facilities amid the threat of rapid virus transmission inside prison walls.

The BuCor has seven facilities nationwide: the CIW, the New Bilibid Prison, the Iwahig, Davao, San Ramon, Sablayan prison and penal farms, and the Leyte Regional Prison.

None of the other six prisons have reported COVID-19 cases so far, according to BuCor spokesperson Gabriel Chaclag.

The BuCor is in charge of the imprisonment of and reformation programs for inmates sentenced to more than three years in prison. The DOJ is studying calls for the release of "low-risk offenders" who may be vulnerable to COVID-19.

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, which has custody of inmates undergoing or awaiting trial, has also reported nine COVID-19 cases among detainees. Nine personnel have also been infected.

The Supreme Court's Office of the Court Administrator has told lower courts to study pending criminal cases towards the provisional release of qualified detainees in accordance with existing guidelines. — RSJ, GMA News