THE Parole and Probation Administration in Central Visayas (PPA 7) is struggling to keep up with over 3,500 pending post-sentence investigations due to a lack of personnel, its officer-in-charge revealed.
PPA 7 Officer-in-Charge Florita Vitor said the office, which is under the Department of Justice, currently has only 79 personnel, including staff, with most of the investigation work falling on the shoulders of around 50 probation and parole officers.
“Each officer here is handling an average of 70 investigations, aside from supervising clients. Nationwide, the standard ratio is already one officer to 500 clients,” Vitor said in a live broadcast from Philippine Information Agency 7 on Tuesday, July 15, 2025.
Despite the support of 738 volunteer probation officers, the workload remains overwhelming, placing Region 7 as the second highest in the country in terms of caseload, next to the National Capital Region and Calabarzon, third.
Vitor said the agency began experiencing significant pressure in 2018, following the implementation of plea bargaining in drug-related cases during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte, when the war on drugs intensified.
Workload increase
Between 2019 and 2020, PPA 7 received up to 15,000 drug-related cases.
“This heavy workload caused burnout. Some officers retired early, and instead of increasing in number, our staff declined,” she said in Cebuano.
To ease the burden, the PPA under the leadership of Administrator Atty. Bienvinido Benites Jr. hired ‘Case Decongestion Assistants’ under contract-of-service arrangements.
Vitor said this initiative helped reduce the pending investigations from 15,000 to the current 3,500.
“We are aiming to resolve the backlog entirely by the end of 2025,” she added.
PPA’s core function is to rehabilitate individuals through probation, parole, or executive clemency.
For probationers—first-time offenders with a sentence not exceeding six years—a post-sentence investigation must be conducted to determine if they qualify for community-based rehabilitation rather than imprisonment.
Vitor called on more professionals to apply for probation and parole officer positions, noting the agency’s urgent need for additional manpower. / CDF