Arya News - Nearly 9 in 10 detainees await trial as jails hit 292% congestion.
MANILA – Years after the peak of the government’s anti-drug campaign, congestion remains a defining feature of the country’s jail system, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
An analysis of July 2025 figures by University of the Philippines Diliman associate professor and Inquirer data scientist Dr. Rogelio Alicor Panao shows detention facilities nationwide operating at an average congestion rate of 292% across 337 jails.
In practical terms, a facility designed for 100 people now holds nearly 300.
The issue comes into focus as the International Criminal Court proceeds with its confirmation of charges against former President Rodrigo Duterte over alleged crimes against humanity linked to the anti-drug campaign, which resulted in large-scale arrests and continues to shape the country’s criminal justice system.
Pressure concentrated in major regions
Panao, in his analysis, noted the heaviest congestion is in Calabarzon and the National Capital Region (NCR), which together hold nearly 38,000 detainees in facilities built for fewer than 9,400.
Calabarzon alone confines 19,029 persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) in space intended for 4,737, while NCR holds 18,863 detainees in facilities designed for 4,658.
Panao described the situation as “systemic compression,” noting that the scale of congestion goes beyond typical overcrowding.
Previous government audits show this regional pattern is not new.
The pattern has persisted for years. In its 2017 annual audit, the Commission on Audit (COA) reported Calabarzon posting one of the country’s highest congestion rates at 975%, followed by Central Luzon at 802% and NCR at 572%.
The strain has long been visible at the facility level. In 2016, Quezon City Jail — built for 800 inmates — held about 3,800. By early 2017, the facility, designed for 280, was housing around 2,700. Manila City Jail recorded congestion as high as 900%, with roughly 5,000 detainees.
“What is driving this volume? According to data, 73.51% of all criminal charges nationwide are drug-related,” Panao said, adding that a substantial share traces back to the intensified anti-drug campaign.
At the time, officials also pointed to the growing share of drug cases. In 2017, Quezon City Jail warden Supt. Randel Latoza said drug detainees made up about 60% to 70% of the population, noting that “Those who are getting out are prisoners with nondrug cases. Those with drug cases are still inside.”
Majority of detainees still awaiting trial
The data also point to slow case resolution as a major driver of congestion.
As of July 2025, 87.32% of PDLs are still awaiting trial, not serving final sentences. This indicates congestion is driven not only by arrest volume but also by delays in case disposition, including prolonged hearings and court backlogs.
“Philippine jails are therefore not primarily housing the convicted; they are holding the unresolved. Congestion is as much a product of delay as it is of arrest volume,” Panao said.
Earlier reports had already pointed to the same structural problem.
In June 2017, Human Rights Watch (HRW), reviewing Duterte’s first year in office, cited government figures showing that jail facilities with a capacity of 20,399 were holding nearly 132,000 detainees, “an overwhelming majority of them awaiting trial or sentencing.”
The group linked the surge to the large-scale arrests carried out during the anti-drug campaign, noting that authorities themselves attributed congestion to “the arrest of tens of thousands of suspected drug users and dealers” since the campaign began.
Subsequent audit findings pointed to drug-related cases and slow court action as key causes of prolonged detention, including postponed hearings and limited judicial resources.
For many detainees, economic constraints further prolong detention. Earlier reports noted that those unable to afford bail often remain behind bars even for bailable offenses, contributing to the buildup of pretrial detainees in already congested facilities.
In 2018, the COA observed that “Detainees who are below poverty line cannot afford to post bail so they were stocked (sic) in the jails,” even in cases where temporary liberty was legally available.
Individual cases reflect these pressures. In a 2019 account, a drug detainee identified as Aldyz faced a bailable charge carrying a possible six months to two years in jail. Despite this, police advised his family not to post bail, warning: “Don’t bail him out because if we see him out there again he could be dead.”
He remained in detention, with relatives told that staying in jail could serve as proof he had already been punished.
Drug cases continue to dominate jail data
Jail records continue to show that drug-related offenses remain the primary reason Filipinos are detained, accounting for more than 68% — or more than two-thirds — of all charges nationwide.
In highly urbanized regions—including NCR, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Central Visayas, and Northern Mindanao—the share rises further, reaching roughly seven to eight in every 10 detainees.
Panao noted that these patterns reflect underlying social and spatial realities, where “high population density, job precarity, and the presence of informal settlements create conditions where drug markets thrive and law enforcement activity is intense.”
Outside urban corridors, however, a different pattern emerges. Mimaropa, the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Bicol Region show some of the highest shares of detainees charged with rape, with figures exceeding 20%.
These regions are marked by more dispersed populations and persistent poverty, where limited institutional reach and underreported gender-based violence influence the composition of cases.
The contrast is also visible in Caraga and parts of Western Mindanao, where the share of detainees charged with murder is higher. These areas have long faced economic underdevelopment, localized conflict and weaker state presence—conditions that, as Panao noted, can allow “everyday tensions to escalate into lethal violence.”
Beyond jail construction
In some regions, limited facility capacity remains a major constraint. In the Zamboanga Peninsula, for example, jails built for 646 people hold nearly 3,000 detainees—a congestion rate approaching 400%.
Panao said in such areas, capacity itself becomes the binding constraint, where even modest increases in detainee numbers quickly overwhelm available space. But he cautioned that infrastructure alone cannot resolve the crisis.
“The country’s detention system is operating under extreme and sustained stress,” he said, adding that congestion reflects deeper structural pressures rather than a simple shortage of cells.
While enforcement surges may have peaked years ago, their institutional effects continue to ripple through the justice system. Arrests made during that period, Panao said, “continue to feed into a court system unable to dispose of cases quickly,” leaving detention facilities under prolonged strain.
He described the situation as a “layered crisis” in which arrest volume, slow case processing, and uneven regional capacity intersect.
“Such a layered crisis means addressing the problem will require more than building new cells,” Panao said. “It demands accelerated case disposition — especially for the thousands of pending drug cases — alongside sustained investment in modern, humane detention facilities capable of meeting present and future demand.”
The data, he added, show congestion is not a short-term surge but a persistent institutional condition, requiring reforms that extend beyond physical expansion to the broader functioning of the justice system.
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