Remulla: P23B for new jails, PDL daily subsidy hike unfunded under proposed 2024 budget

The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request for P23 billion for new jail facilities as well as increased subsidy for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) are unfunded under the proposed 2024 budget, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Wednesday.

Remulla made the statement when asked to explain by House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro why the daily food and medicine allowance for PDLs remain at P85 for 2024, the same amount provided under the 2023 budget.

“We asked for P100 [daily subsistence of PDLs] for food, and P30 for medicine, pero hindi po binigay sa amin ng DBM. Actually, maraming kailangan na kailangan ang DOJ na hindi binigay sa amin ng DBM,” he said, referring to the Department of Budget and Management.

(Our request for funding was denied, and many of our urgent needs were not given funding by the DBM.)

“The congestion of our jails is at 383%, and  we asked for allocation to fix this problem. We asked for P23 billion para makapagpagawa ng bagong piitan, to decongest ang mga kulungan, pero hindi po ibinigay sa amin ang ganitong pondo,” Remulla added.

(We wanted P23 billion to build new jails, but our request was not granted.)

The DOJ's proposed budget for 2024 is P34.5 billion.

DBM’s Mary Ann dela Vega, in response, said that increasing the daily subsidy for food and medicine of PDLs in the Bureau of Corrections would also entail increase for daily subsistence of PDLs under the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).

“Yes, we have maintained the rate of P70 for food and P15 for medicine for PDLs of Bucor and BJMP. It was maintained because the impact of the increase will amount to P3 billion, so we decided to maintain the level,” Dela Vega said.

She then said that in maintaining the amount of subsidy of food and medicine for PDLs, they also considered that the daily subsistence for the military and uniformed personnel (MUP) is only at P150 per day.

The MUP’s monthly salary, however, has been doubled during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.—AOL, GMA Integrated News