Bureau of Corrections

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Corrections in the Philippines started during pre colonial times. It was however only
during the Spanish regime when an organized corrective service was made operational.
The main penitentiary was the Old Bilibid Manila, which was established in 1847
pursuant to Section 1708 of the Revised Administrative Code. Royal Decree in 1865.

When the Americans took over in the 1900s, the Bureau of Prisons was created under the
Reorganization Act of 1905 (Act No. 1407 dated November 1, 1905) as an agency under
the Department of Commerce and Police. On January 1, 1915, the San Ramon Prison was
placed under the auspices of the Bureau of Prisons and started receiving prisoners from
Mindanao.

Before the reconstruction of San Ramon Prison, the Americans established in 1904, the
luhit penal settlement (now Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm) on a vast reservation of
28,072 hectares.

Other penal colonies were established during the American regime. On November 27,
1929, the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) was created under Act No. 3579
while Davao Penal Colony in Southern Mindanao was opened in 1932 under Act No.
3732. The CIW was founded to provide separate facilities for women offenders.
Owing to the increasing number of committals to the Old Bilibid Prison in Manila, the
New Bilibid Prison was established in 1935 in a southern suburb of Muntinlupa, Rizal.

Two more penal institutions would later be established. These were Sablayan Prison and
penal farm in Occidental Mindoro under Proclamation No. 72 issued on September 26,
1954 and Leyte Regional Prison under Proclamation No. 1101 issued on January 16,
1973.

The Bureau of Prisons was renamed Bureau of Corrections under the New Administrative
Code of 1987 issued on November 23, 1987 and Proclamation no. 495 of the President. It
is one of the attached agencies under the supervision and control of the Department of
Justice.