Senator
Alan Peter Cayetano with TESDA Secretary Joel Villanueva and
Informatics president Leo Riingen during the MOA signing for the
BilibIT project that will give IT training to the inmates of
BJMP. |
Cayetano launches
BILIB I.T. program for detainees
By Office of Sen. Alan Peter
S. Cayetano
November 1, 2012
PASAY CITY –
Senate minority leader Alan Peter Cayetano, in line with his advocacy
for prisoners’ welfare, launched BILIB IT – an information technology
(IT) program designed to give detainees the necessary skills to rejoin
the country’s workforce once their sentence ends.
He, along with his wife
Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano and Technical and Education Skills
Development Authority (TESDA) Director General Joel Villanueva, graced
the event to award program scholarships to the deserving detainees.
The senator, in cooperation
with Informatics and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP),
sees this initiative as a chance to maximize the reform and
rehabilitation function of the country’s criminal justice system.
He emphasized that the
principle behind the Philippine criminal justice system is aimed
towards the rehabilitation of criminal offenders rather than on their
punishment and that providing education to criminal offenders is the
key element for their effective rehabilitation.
"Most of our detainees, even
when convicted, will not be sentenced to life imprisonment. So how do
we help in their reintegration after they have served their time? We
should give them the chance to make a living and become productive
members of society in the future," he said.
"Rehabilitation rather than
retribution is the key policy of the State that we must adhere to," he
added.
Cayetano explained that the
scholars who can qualify for the program are those who have served
their sentence but preferred to live inside the penal community due to
lack of skills necessary to rejoin the work force, detainees who have
minimum security, and those inmates with sentences not longer than 6
years.
He said that while the
program will be spearheaded in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, he hopes
that other local government units will also be encouraged to set up
similar programs in their respective detention centers.
Using the United States
practice of allowing inmates to do call center work for non-sensitive
matters as an example, the minority leader also expressed his
willingness to work with BJMP and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
work on guidelines allowing Taguig inmates to do the same.
"Step one is the training.
But we'll see if we can try building call centers inside jail
facilities to help these detainees utilize their training and gain
employment. I eventually want to get there because it's a step further
towards better rehabilitation," he said.
The lawmaker pointed out
that this initiative is part of his IT advocacy as evidenced by the IT
scholarships offered by his office to the city of Taguig.
Under the IT scholarship
program in Taguig, 155 scholars have successfully finished different
courses such as Finishing Course for Call Center Agents (FCCCA),
computer Hardware Servicing (CHS), Computer Programming, and Web
Design.