MANILA (UCAN): Bishop Jose Colin Bagaforo of Kidapawan, the Philippines and chairperson of the Catholic bishops’ Commission on Social Action, Justice and Peace, joined calls by rights groups demanding an investigation into the mystery of a prisoner’s chopped body parts ending up in septic tanks in the heavily guarded New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, Metro Manila.
On July 26, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology reported that human body parts were found inside a septic tank at the country’s biggest jail facility.
“It is really mind-boggling how such a crime could be committed in a jail facility where knives and other pointed objects are not allowed. This begs the question, therefore, if anyone inside the facility was involved [in the murder],” Bishop Bagaforo said.
The bishop said he had contacted the victim’s family, but that the relatives were tight-lipped, fearing for their security.
“We wanted to know why it happened or if they knew anything that could lead to this tragic and inhuman event. But no one picked up our calls or answered our text messages,” he lamented.
The prison’s acting chief senior superintendent, Angelina Bautista, said at a press conference on July 26 that after initial checking they found an inmate named Michael Angelo Cataroja had been missing for 10 days. “We cannot confirm the identity of the victim except that he was dead because he was decapitated,” she said.
It is really mind-boggling how such a crime could be committed in a jail facility where knives and other pointed objects are not allowed. This begs the question, therefore, if anyone inside the facility was involved [in the murder] Bishop Bagaforo
A department-level investigation revealed that the severed remains were separately dumped in two septic tanks by the perpetrators.
A rights group, Samahang Manggagawa para sa Karapatang Pantao [labour group for human rights], claimed the murder could not have happened without the knowledge of prison officials. It was “impossible” to dump the remains without being noticed by guards who were on 24-hour duty, the group said.
The group’s executive secretary, Norman Guilen, said that they had appealed to the Commission on Human Rights to make sure no evidence was buried and that witnesses could freely testify.
There are thousands of prisoners and “they don’t have any decent place to sleep. Even as prisoners, they have basic rights,” Guilen added.
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The jail houses 29,000 inmates, exceeding its capacity of 6,345 inmates in 2022, the Bureau of Corrections reported.
“This means each prison security has to guard more than 500 inmates instead of seven as mandated by law,” Bureau of Corrections chief and retired armed forces general, Gregorio Catapang, Jr., said.
Catapang, however, said the bureau is in a “transition period”, planning to the inmates to the larger jail facility in Palawan Island, in the southern Philippines.
“We will close this down [New Bilibid Prison] and have asked the government to allot funds to modernise jail facilities in Palawan,” he added.
