Ben Madilynn
THE Department of Justice-Parole and Probation Administration-Davao Region (DOJ-PPA Davao) bares that the government has saved a lot of money with the implementation of the probation and parole program since Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) are released into the community.
Benjamin C. Cutay Jr., regional director of DOJ-PPA Davao, said during the Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas at NCCC VP on Tuesday morning, August 27, 2024, that the government has saved taxpayers’ money amounting to almost P700,000 per day through the implementation of community-based corrections.
“The government savings per day is P678,510 or P247,656,150,000 as of July 2024 that is the computation,” he said.
Cutay said 9,653 Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs) are under probation, parole, and pardon and the budget meal for each PDL is P70. This translates to savings of about P678,510 daily since these PDLs are no longer under institutional correction by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) but are under community-based correction.
“We also discharged at least 1,235 so we have an active supervision caseload which is 9,653 so it’s almost 10,000 PDLs under probation and parole and pardon which are under our supervision,” he said.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics describes corrections as the supervision of individuals who are arrested for, convicted of, or sentenced for criminal offenses. There are two general categories for corrections: institutional and community corrections.
Community corrections include probation which is correctional supervision within the community instead of jail or prison while parole is a period of conditional and supervised release from prison.
The DOJ-PPA received 3,568 cases referred for probation, parole, and pardon in the second quarter of 2024, and they have already acted upon 2,098 cases while there are around 1,070 pending cases for investigation.
The number of investigation referrals from the courts that the DOJ-PPA received increased to 5,446 in 2023, compared to 4,633 in 2022. On supervision referrals handled, it increased to 8,953 in 2023, in contrast to 8,879 in 2022.
The DOJ-PPA has 12 field offices in the region: three in Davao City, two in Davao del Norte, and one each in Davao Oriental, Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos), Digos City, Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental, Davao de Oro, and Tagum City. RGP
