QuestionsQuestions (PRESIDENTIAL DECREE NO. 28)
To establish seven regional prisons, convert existing national penal institutions into regular prisons and penal farms, appropriate funds therefor, and address related concerns such as overcrowding and prisoner rehabilitation.
It seeks to address overcrowded national prisons and the issues caused by an integrated system of confinement of different types of felons, regardless of whether they are incorrigibles or first offenders.
The decree states that this will reduce incidences of escapes among national prisoners and promote rehabilitation.
House Bill No. 4385, titled “An Act Establishing Seven Regional Prisons and Converting Existing National Penal Institutions Into Regular Prisons and Penal Farms, Appropriating Funds Therefor, And For Other Purposes,” is adopted and approved.
It is the proclamation that set the basis for Martial Law in 1972, which is referenced as authority context for the President’s issuance of the decree.
It provides that there shall be immediately established—“in lieu of the number and location of the penal establishments created thereunder”—one regional prison in each of the provinces/area specified: Leyte, Pangasinan, and Northeastern Mindanao.
In Leyte, Pangasinan, and Northeastern Mindanao.
The decree shall take effect immediately.
It allows amendments, changes, and modifications by the President, which take effect after the President’s announcement or by announcement through the duly designated representative.
It implies a structural reclassification and reorganization of existing confinement facilities into two categories: regular prisons and penal farms, presumably to improve management and rehabilitation.
It states that such integration of various types of felons—whether incorrigibles or first offenders—perpetuates problems that the decree aims to resolve.
Rehabilitation is promoted by bringing prisoners closer to families and friends, and by reorganizing confinement facilities and reducing escape incidents.
It shows that the President, through decree, made the contents of the bill part of the law, treating the bill as the operative statute while bypassing the usual legislative passage.
It states that bringing prisoners closer to their families and friends, along with the overall prison system changes, will reduce escapes.
It was done in the City of Manila on October 25, 1972, signed by Ferdinand E. Marcos, with Alejandro Melchor as Executive Secretary.