Criminals are literally eating the budget of the Philippine National Police (PNP).
“Chief Supt. Dennis Siervo, head of the PNP Human Rights Affairs Office, has revealed that the obligation to feed 1,980 detainees nationwide — who are awaiting transfer to city or provincial jails — is taking its toll on the PNP’s finances,” reports Aaron B. Recuenco in Manila Bulletin.
Siervo explained, “The allocation is PHP50 for every inmate per day. With almost 2,000 inmates temporarily under our custody across the country, we are shelling out some PHP100,000 every day.”
The report noted: “The financial burden of feeding the detainees also goes hand in hand with congestion in many police station detention cells. While some of the detainees receive provisions from their relatives regularly, the majority do not, compelling police officers to provide for them.”
With no immediate solution at the moment, all Siervo could do was to point out that “there is a need for the judiciary to expedite the disposition of cases of suspects and the transfer of law offenders to appropriate detention facilities while awaiting the outcome of their trial.”
