Separate jail for top offenders pushed
A JOINT Senate committee has approved a bill seeking to set up a separate jail for felons convicted of heinous crimes.
Senate Bill 1055 will transfer high-level offenders toa maximum penal institution.
This follows a Senate investigation of alleged corruption in the country’s prison system. President Rodrigo R. Duterte this month fired his prison chief Nicanor E. Faeldon for allowing the illegal release for good conduct of about 2,000 inmates convicted of various heinous crimes including murder and rape.
Under the bill, the jail will be under a 24-hour surveillance using the latest security system. The Justice department must find a location of the penitentiary, “preferably within a military establishment or in an island separate from the main land,” according to the measure. — Charmaine A. Tadalan
LGUs more prone to cyberattacks
LOCAL government have become more prone to cyberattacks as data collected continually grow, according to cybersecurity company Fortinet.
“Today’s cybercriminals are savvy and well aware that local governments hold massive amounts of data,” the company said in a statement.
“They’re readily equipped to exploit that data’s value, whether by selling it on the dark web, or through extortionary tactics like ransomware attacks,” it added.
Ransomware attacks are one of the top threats that local governments face and their chief information security officers must identify and deploy solutions while making the best use of their limited resources, Fortinet said. — Marc Wyxzel C. Dela Paz
Free legal aid to poor to continue
THE Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said it would continue to support rookie lawyers who wish to help poor clients after the Supreme Court suspended a program requiring novices to provide free service.
“We will work with you in the true spirit of volunteerism so that those who have less in life may possibly have more in law,” IBP National President Domingo Egon Q. Cayosa said in a statement. “We look forward to your continuing participation in the pro bono programs and activities of the IBP.”
The high court on Sept. 3 stopped its Community Legal Aid Service rule in keeping with the Revised Law Student Practice rule.
The court also ordered the IBP to refer back the cases assigned to CLAS-covered lawyers to supervising IBP lawyers. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
Statistics agency classifies crimes
THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) has released a crime classification framework that will categorize offenses according to similarity.
The 2018 Philippine Standard Classification of Crime for Statistical Purposes contains 11 sections that cover all acts or events.
The 11 sections are acts leading to death; those causing harm; injurious sexual acts; those against property involving violence or threat against a person; acts against property only; those involving controlled drugs; acts involving fraud, deception or corruption; acts against public order, authority or state; acts against public safety and state security; those against the environment; and other criminal acts not elsewhere classified. — Marc Wyxzel C. Dela Paz
