IN LIGHT of the controversy over strip-searching visiting wives of inmates at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) in Muntinlupa City, a congressman urged the government to provide non-invasive forms of body search assets like body scanners.
Prison guards at the national penitentiary should also undergo gender and elderly sensitivity training to prevent incidents of body searches that trample on the dignity of prison visitors, Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith T. Flores said in a statement issued in Filipino on Sunday.
“I call on the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to provide the National Bilibid Prison with non-invasive body search assets such as machines being used in major airports and drug-sniffing dogs,” he said.
Wives of political prisoners locked at the NBP filed a complaint with the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) after their “traumatic experience” of being strip-searched, with an elderly visitor subjected to body cavity searches under a directive from prison officials.
“I was made to squat three times and then bend over while opening my private parts to check for any hidden illegal items,” Gloria Almonte, one of the complainants, said in a statement released by political prisoner support group KAPATID last week. “I felt shame during those moments… it felt like my dignity as a human being was being trampled upon.”
The DoJ and DBM should provide the necessary funding for the national penitentiary to procure security equipment to prevent invasive strip searches for prison visitors, Mr. Flores said.
In the meantime, the DoJ and Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) could borrow equipment from the Office of Transportation Security so they could immediately halt the practice of invasive body searches, he added.
The BuCor on Friday suspended the practice of strip and body cavity searches pending an investigation on the complaint lodged by wives of political prisoners. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
