THE new Davao City Mega Jail which is still under construction can accommodate 5,000 persons deprived of liberty (PDL).
The new city jail facility lies within an eight-hectare property in Barangay Wangan in Calinan district. The current Davao City Jail in Maa is already congested. Designed to accommodate 700 people it now houses 3,000 PDLs.
According to Jail Senior Inspector Ellen Rose Saragena, chief Community Relations Section of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, they will soon be transferring the PDLs of the male dormitory of the city jail in Maa to the mega facility.
“For now, we have 3,100 PDLs in the male dormitory. It's very congested because the facility is good for 700 people. We are just waiting for the construction to be finished,” Saragena said.
They are still waiting for water and power connections in the new jail facility.
Saragena said the challenge in connecting these utilities is that the jail is far and the nearest community to the mega jail facility still has no power and water connections.
“We are just waiting for the budget to be downloaded and for the City Government to help us so it will be completed,” Saragena said.
The space that will eventually be vacated by the male inmates in Maa will be taken over by the annex jail facility where LGBTQ, the elderly and those who are sickly are being kept.
She said the BJMP has plans of making it a self-sustaining jail as currently only two hectares of the 8-hectare property is being utilized.
“Meron pang six hectares it could be an agricultural area pero planning stage pa lang as it is not yet occupied,” Saragena said that the plans will be more definite if they are already in the property.
She hopes that this year they can move in, but it all depends if the water and power are already connected to the new jail and the budget for these will be released.
“I hope that we can move in as soon as possible kay kung makita niyo ang current jail luoy jud siya (if you look at the current jail, it is pitiful),” Saragena said. (PR)