China to fund jail in Philippine drugs war
Print Edition
CHINA has pledged funds for a new detention facility in the Philippines as part of its support for President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war, the Philippine jail chief said yesterday.
Duterte’s crackdown on drugs has worsened already severe congestion in Philippine jails.
In July, photographs of Quezon City Jail revealed how inmates took turns to sleep on an open-air basketball court and a staircase.
Duterte has credited China for supporting his crime war and Beijing has provided funding for rehabilitation and offered weapons for the campaign.
Yesterday, the head of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology said that during Duterte’s trip to Beijing in October, China also offered to donate 700 million pesos (US$14 million) for detention facilities.
“It’s meant to help the anti-crime campaign of our president. It’s really for jails,” prison director Serafin Barretto told reporters.
“We feel happy because this will be a big help to address the lack of resources.”
Barretto said his agency decided to use the money to fund the construction of a new Quezon City Jail, which was built six decades ago for 800 inmates but now houses almost 3,000.
Duterte, 71, took office in June and quickly made good on his campaign promise of a war against drugs.
But the spike in arrests overwhelmed the penal system, with the population in Quezon City Jail soaring to 4,100 in August.
The new facility, which could house 6,000 inmates by 2019, is estimated to cost 2 billion pesos.
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