THE chief of the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) has announced that the New Bilibid Prison will be closed down by 2028. Bilibid’s close to 30,000 inmates will be moved to regional prisons, and the 587-hectare facility in Muntinlupa City will be converted into a sprawling commercial hub.

Closing down Bilibid ends a long and often turbulent chapter in the history of the country’s prison system. More significantly, it offers a chance to restructure that system to bring it closer to its mission to reform inmates and prepare them for reintegration into society.

To begin with, Bilibid is far from being an ideal prison. It is terribly congested; originally built to accommodate 6,000 inmates, its population has grown to five times that.

The prison is short of guards. The food is “below standard nutrition,” according to one human rights group, contesting the claim of BuCor of “improved catering services based on value for money.”

BuCor Director General Gregorio Pio Catapang Jr. said a budget of P77.7 billion has been proposed to upgrade the regional prisons where Bilibid’s inmates will be transferred. It takes more than money, however, to get the regionalization program off to a good start.

No meaningful reform could take root unless the shadow government that has been running Bilibid is dismantled. This “evil empire” has survived countless attempts to break it down because it has managed to control practically every aspect of prison life. It does so by building a web of corruption within Bilibid’s walls.

In his research paper, “Understanding the conditions of New Bilibid Prison: Implications for Integrated Reforms,” Raymund Narag, an assistant professor at Southern Illinois University, describes a “culture of the penal institution” where prison officers and inmates “can generate social and political power … a hierarchy of status in the prison community.”

At the top of the social pyramid are the privileged inmates — criminals who are wealthy and influential enough to continue their nefarious operations even while imprisoned. Majority of these VIP, or “Very Important Preso,” are drug lords whose cells are virtual suites complete with air-conditioning, Jacuzzi, videoke and Wi-Fi.

The cabal has established a strong bond with prisons officials to perpetuate their power through corruption and impunity

Bilibid’s shadow government is responsible for the long string of anomalies that have been exposed through the decades. The occasional sweep of cells for contraband yields the usual stash of weapons and illegal drugs, but that hasn’t stopped the thriving narcotics trade inside Bilibid.

Most recently, the murder of broadcaster Percy Mabasa has put Bilibid in sharp focus after it was found that the killing was planned inside the prison and carried out by a group of its inmates. The case became even more fascinating after the prisoner who helped organize the hit on Mabasa was himself killed inside Bilibid.

A high-level investigation of the Mabasa case has resulted in charges being filed against suspended BuCor chief Gerald Bantag and his deputy, Ricardo Zulueta.

The case apparently helped hasten the decision to close down Bilibid and redistribute its prisoners. Again, it must be emphasized that the prison system has to be cleansed first to prevent the tentacles of the prison’s evil empire from growing back.

The Bureau of Corrections Act of 2013 provides the blueprint for modernizing the country’s prison system. A key provision is to build more regional prisons with a population of not more than 2,000 inmates and with sufficient facilities for more efficient prison management.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla vowed to introduce “long-lasting and game changer prison reforms,” among them the regionalization of prison facilities, and the transfer of the BuCor headquarters, the New Bilibid Prison, and the Correctional Institute for Women.

Last February, Remulla also told a forum on prison reforms in Geneva: “There are a lot of challenges in our mission to reform our jail and prison system in the Philippines, and our unique situation drives us to find new ways and outside-thebox solutions to hurdle them.”

The challenges have been identified. All that Remulla has to do is see to it that the initiatives to address them do not lose momentum.