QuestionsQuestions (PROCLAMATION NO. 551)
It is Proclamation No. 551 (dated March 15, 1995). It declares the last week of October of every year as “National Correctional Consciousness Week.”
Article II, Section 11 of the 1987 Constitution, which states that the State values the dignity of every human person and guarantees full respect for human rights. It supports humane treatment and rehabilitation-oriented public policy.
Book IV, Title III, Chapter 8, Section 26 is cited as the embodied rehabilitation of offenders and as the basis for raising program standards and creating public awareness for re-socialization and reintegration.
To continuously create awareness and raise program standards to encourage public participation in the re-socialization and reintegration of prisoners, probationers, and parolees.
It is the basis for extending support, humane understanding, and sympathy for rehabilitation while confined and while under parole or probation, and for social acceptance upon release.
It states that families’ well-being and important role shall be emphasized because rehabilitation and reintegration are supported by a supportive social environment, including family.
It recognizes their vital role in safeguarding adult and youth offenders, rehabilitating and transforming them into normal and responsible citizens, and it calls for their efforts to be recognized and supported.
It states that both public and private sectors are equally responsible for ensuring a successful correctional system and are called upon to rally behind efforts to heal social cleavages and reintegrate Filipinos into the mainstream of national community.
The last week of October, every year thereafter (recurring annually).
Prisoners, probationers, and parolees.
The Constitution’s mandate to value human dignity and respect human rights supports humane and rehabilitative correctional policies, while the Administrative Code provisions specifically address offender rehabilitation and program standards and provide a rationale for public awareness.
It connects these efforts to reintegration of offenders as productive, law-abiding citizens and to healing social cleavages and strengthening national community inclusion.
The proclamation frames rehabilitation not only as a correctional process while confined or under parole/probation, but also as supported by public humane understanding leading to social acceptance upon release.
It promotes a rights-based, dignity-centered correctional approach through public awareness and participation, aimed at rehabilitating offenders and enabling their successful reintegration into society.