DAGUPAN CITY — Superintendent Kenneth Bid-ing of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) here, who is the country’s best city jail warden awardee since 2015, has been focusing his plans and programs on the facility, as well as the personal and educational development of inmates.
“We (BJMP-Dagupan) with the national office have been doing developments in the facility of the city jail to address congestion. We also maintain the peace and order, especially the drug- free status of the city jail,” said Bid-ing in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Tuesday.
He admitted that it is a challenge to handle 1,067 inmates in a facility that was made to accommodate only 350 to 400 people.
“We are glad that a BJMP facility is underway in San Fabian town where the inmates who are not from this city will be transferred there as soon as its construction is done,” he said.
Bid-ing disclosed that they conduct comprehensive and regular search operations in the facility and among the inmates, while BJMP-Dagupan employees undergo regular random drug tests to maintain the facility’s drug-free status.
“It is hard to maintain the drug-free status, but we are glad that every time the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency conducts operation, it always results to negative, hence they give us the certification for drug-free status,” Bid-ing said.
One of the top projects of BJMP-Dagupan under Bid-ing’s leadership is the college educational program.
“We have tapped a college institution that offers short courses like book keeping and secretarial courses. It’s been running for three years and there were three batches who graduated from it. We are now on the fourth batch,” he said.
BJMP-Dagupan also recorded one hundred percent passing rate in the Alternative Learning System Program of the Department of Education, said Bid-ing.
“We have also addressed illiteracy among some of the inmates,” he said.
Bid-ing noted that aside from the inmates’ welfare and education development activities, there are also livelihood activities for them such as basket-making, mugs-making and t-shirt printing among others, to keep them busy while waiting for the outcome of their cases.
Bid-ing received his fourth award as best city jail warden nationwide during the annual recognition ceremony for BJMP’s Best of 2018 at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on July 6. (Hilda Austria/PNA)
