Plans to relocate country’s oldest penal colony underway

THE plan to relocate the Zamboanga City’s San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm is underway to give way to the establishment of an industrial park.

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is set to be signed by the officials of the Zamboanga City Special Economic Zone Authority (Zamboecozone), Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) for the relocation of the country’s oldest penal colony.

The area of the penal colony will become part of the Zamboecozone’s 664-hectare industrial park.

All necessary documents are being prepared after a meeting last week between the Zamboecozone and BuCor.

“The MOU signing will be held within the month,” said Christopher Arnuco, Zamboecozone chairman and administrator.

“We have to move fast to ensure the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will incorporate the fund allocation in the 2018 national budget,” Arnuco added.

But Arnuco said the transfer will happen once the support fund will be released and the new facility for the inmates will be available.

The planned transfer was first considered over a decade ago. The transfer was deemed necessary as the Zamboaecozone is set to develop the San Ramon Seaport Project.

The present penal colony has occupied some 600 hectares of the ecozone area.

“(The penal colony) will be transferred to an area twice the size they are currently occupying,” Arnuco said.

The proposed new location of the penal colony is the 1,200-hectare land in Barangays Bungiao and Curuan.

The penal colony is house to some 1,400 inmates at present.

As the country’s oldest penal colony, the plan also includes the preservation of the main building of the century-old prison facility to be undertaken by the National Historical Commission.

The San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm, according to BuCor’s website, was established on August 21, 1870 during administration of Governor General Ramon Blanco of the Spanish regime.

Originally, the penal colony was built for political prisoners. It was destroyed when the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898. But the American administrators, after the war, re-established the prison facility in 1907. (SunStar Philippines)

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