FOR one month now, inmates of New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa City (Metro Manila) have been unable to take their morning bath because of defective and outdated water pumps, an official told The Manila Times on Wednesday.
Engineer Cesar Sandoval, the chief of the General Services Division, said that two of their major water pumps were not working and in need of immediate repairs.
He added that the medium- and maximum-security compounds of the national penitentiary were directly hit by the water crisis.
“Here in [the] maximum-security compound, our four pumps are working,” but not the ones in the other two camps, Sandoval said.
“We [have] sent our job order request to the logistics division and we are just waiting for the delivery of the materials,” he added.
When asked how much would it cost to rehabilitate the pumps, the engineer put it at about P700,000: P300,000 for the one near the museum—a building where lethal injections were formerly carried out—and P400,000 for the one near Building 14.
“We need to add five tubes for each deep well and upgrade the pumps to 40 horsepower,” Sandoval said, adding that it would take at least three to five days to complete the repairs.
To give some relief to the inmates, the Muntinlupa City government, through the efforts of Mayor Aldrin San Pedro, has started to ration water to augment deliveries by firetrucks of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology.
The division chief said that pumps in NBP have difficulty drawing water because of the big overhead pumps of nearby national housing projects such as Katarungan Village and the new National Housing Authority resettlement area, where about 10,000 people live.
“They (housing projects) have heavy-duty pumps. That’s why we can’t get enough from our deep well. We just have to dig deeper and upgrade our pumps,” he added.
An informant, meanwhile, told The Times that Bureau of Corrections Officer-in-Charge Manuel Co had berated Sandoval on Tuesday after learning that his division was not doing anything to solve the water crisis.
“The problem with Sandoval is that he insists in using submersible pumps instead of overhead pumps,” the informant said.
“Look at the villages near us: They are using overhead pumps, which cost less and [are] easy to repair,” he added.
Aside from the 6,500 occupants of the two camps, about 15,000 socialized-housing residents also share in the meager water supply provided by 10 electric pumps, which are intended for the inmates’ exclusive use.
The NBP uses submersible pumps, unlike the overhead ones in nearby communities.
There are four pumps servicing the maximum-security compound, while five pumps cater to the medium-security compound and one in Building 14—10 in all.
The national penitentiary houses about 19,000 inmates, of which 12,000 are serving their life sentences in the maximum-security compound.
The medium-security compound has 6,000 occupants and the minimum, 500.
NBP is a 531-hectare reservation, but fewer than 20 hectares are actually used by the compounds.
Maximum only measures 10 hectares, while both medium and minimum use fewer than that.
Another informant said that some residents and “kubols” (huts) of rich inmates were using water boosters to the detriment of other users.
“How can a rich inmate use his hot and cold showers if he has no water pressure machine?” one resident, who asked not to be identified, asked.
By Jaime Pilapil, The Manila Times
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