MANILA, Philippines – The Batangas provincial government has built a 100-bed isolation facility for inmates that is away from the prison complex.

Calabarzon health regional director Eduardo Janairo said the idea was to take the prisoners away from the prison complex where the virus can easly be transmit from one another because of congestion.

“Una ang Batangas na gumawa ng paraan para maasikaso ang ating mga Person Deprived of Liberty (PDL) na nagpositibo sa virus, alisin sila sa kampo o sa prison at ilagay sa isang facility na magkakarooon sila ng mas magandang kalagayan, mas mabibigyan ng karampatang lunas at importante hindi sila magkakahawaan,” Janairo said.

(Batangas is first province to make a way to accommodate PDLs positive for coronavirus and move them away from the prison and house them in a facility with better condition, and where they can be treated and will not infect each other.)

The isolation facility is located at Barangay Malainin in Ibaan, Batangas.

Janairo said the same facility will be used for other residents who will test positive for the virus, but will be in a separate building.

For prisoners, there will be 20 rooms for male and 20 rooms for female.

At least 15 police officers will be guarding the facility.

The isolation area was previously designed as a drug rehabilitation facility, and was also formerly used as an evacuation center for those displaced by the Taal eruption.

The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has built an isolation facility in its new jail site in Payatas, Quezon City.

The Cebu City Jail, where most of the positive cases of inmates are from, has an isolation facility within its complex.

As of April 28, there are 195 prisoners in BJMP facilities positive for coronavirus, most from Cebu.

The Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has the Site Harry isolation facility inside the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa, and has completed the isolation facility in Mandaluyong for Correctional inmates.

As of last update, there are 117 BuCor convicts positive for coronavirus; 5 have died.

 – Rappler.com