Airport-like body scanners sought for NBP

Calls for additional funds for the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) were made following the “demeaning strip” search at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) against wives of political prisoners that resulted in the relief of seven jail guards.

Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Justice, said Sunday that the recurrence of the incident could be warded off with the deployment of non-invasive body search assets such as the machines used in major airports and drug-sniffing dogs.

“I urge the DoJ (Department of Justice) and DBM (Department of Budget and Management) to look for the funds needed to make an emergency purchase to address the urgent need,” said Flores, who is also a member of the House Committee on Human Rights.

In the meantime, the DoJ and the BuCor, which oversees the NBP, could resort to borrowing a spare piece of equipment from the Office of Transportation Security pending the emergency purchase, according to Flores.

The lawmaker’s call for an additional budget came at the heels of reports of cases of strip searches involving visiting relatives of persons deprived of liberty at the NBP, including a political prisoner’s wife, a senior citizen.

The victim was 63-year-old Gloria Almonte, who only planned to visit her husband Dionisio in April but was surprisingly subjected to a strip search despite her insistence that she did not bear any contraband.

Gloria lamented that they trampled on her dignity, which eventually resulted in the filing of complaints before the Commission on Human Rights.