THE PAROLE AND PROBATION SUPERVISION PROGRAMME
IN THE PHILLIPINESFrances F. Magnaan*

I. THE CURRENT SITUATIONThe Parole and Probation Administration is currently implementing a three-pronged approach programme,
namely: Therapeutic Community (TC), Restorative Justice (RJ) and Volunteer Probation Assistant (VPA)
Programs for the rehabilitation of clients released into the community.
Therapeutic Community (TC) was originally designed for institutional treatment for substance abusers
but was later redesigned to address supervision treatment needs of offenders in a community-based settingin the Philippines. TC has been implemented in the PPA since 1998. It underwent several revisions acrosstime to arrive at its present shape as the Therapeutic Community Ladderized Program (TCLP). TCLP is
implemented to all clients (probationers, parolees, pardonees and minor offenders who are released on
probation) of the Agency. TCLP is divided into four phases namely: Orientation, Primary Treatment,
Immersion and Integration. As a general rule, every client must undergo TC activity sessions regardless ofsex or gender, but the approach admits of certain exemptions like those who are seriously ill, students,
pregnant women and detained clients. It is worth mentioning that there are some Gender and Development(GAD) lesson plans in Phases II, III and IV of the TC Manual.
Restorative Justice (RJ) is a process through which remorseful offenders accept responsibility for their
misconduct to those directly injured and to the community as a secondary victim, which, in response, allows
the reintegration of the offender into the said community. RJ treats crime as a violation of people andrelationships. It creates an obligation to make things right through proactive involvement of victims,
ownership of the crime by the offender and participation of the community in search for solutions which
promote repair, reconciliation and reassurance (probation.gov.ph). Through the process of RJ, clients, victims
and other people who have stakes in the case are gathered together in a dialogue that aims to address theimpact or consequence of the offence committed, with the goal of promoting peace and reconciliation, if
possible.
The volunteerism programme is aimed at generating maximum, effective and efficient citizen participationand community involvement in the overall process of client rehabilitation. Section 28 of Presidential Decree
No. 968, the Probation Law of 1976, authorizes the appointment of citizens of good repute and probity to act
as probation aides to assist in the supervision of probationers, parolees and pardonees. Republic Act No. 9418
or the Volunteer Act of 2007, Section 12, par. c, provides for National Government Agencies and Local
Government Units to establish volunteer programmes in their respective offices to promote and encourage
volunteering in government programmes and projects as well as enjoin government employees to rendervolunteer service in social, economic and humanitarian development undertakings in the community.
Additionally, Executive Order No. 468 revitalizes the VPAs Program of the DOJ-PPA to heighten andmaximize community involvement and participation in the community-based programme of Parole andProbation in the prevention of crime, treatment of offenders and criminal justice administration (probation.
gov.ph). Although TC, RJ and Volunteerism programmes have no gender specific guidelines for implementation,in the conduct of these programmes, however, we observe gender fair language in the delivery of topics andlessons, we uphold the rights of senior citizens, minors, pregnant women and nursing mothers and differently
abled clients. At present, there is an ongoing Impact Assessment on the Rehabilitation Programs of the PPA
being conducted by the University of the Philippines, to determine, inter alia, the following:* Assistant Regional Director/Regional Officer-in-Charge, National Capital Region Parole and Probation Administration,
Quezon City, Philippines.

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abled clients. At present, there is an ongoing Impact Assessment on the Rehabilitation
Programs of the PPA being conducted by the University of the Philippines, to determine,inter alia, the following:
RESOURCE.MATERIAL.SERIES.No..113

a. The impact of the above-mentioned rehabilitation programmes on the lives of theclients, including those who have been discharged from supervision by virtue of a
Termination Order in the case of probation and Final Release and Discharge in thea.. The.impact.of.the.above-mentioned.rehabilitation.programmes.on.the.lives.of.the.clients,.including.
case of parole and conditional pardon.
those.who.have.been.discharged.from.supervision.by.virtue.of.a.Termination.Order.in.the.case.of.
probation.and.Final.Release.and.Discharge.in.the.case.of.parole.and.conditional.pardon.

b. The field offices’ level of efficiency and effectiveness in the implementation ofb.. The.fi.eld.offi..ces’.level.of.effi..ciency.and.eff.ectiveness.in.the.implementation.of.rehabilitation.programmes.
rehabilitation
programmes.

II. STATISTICS
STATISTICS
A. Probation
Investigation
Caseload
A. Probation
Investigation
Caseload
Statistics
in
the
graph
and
table hereunder show that probation investigation cases
Statistics.in.the.graph.and.table.hereunder.show.that.probation.investigation.cases.received.from.2010.
received from 2010 to 2020 registered an extremely startling increase in 2007.
to.2020.registered.an.extremely.startling.increase.in.2017.
1.. Probation.Investigation.Caseload.(Graph.and.Table)
1. Probation Investigation Caseload (Graph and Table)

TOTAL PROBATION INVESTIGATIONCASELOAD
CYs 2010 – 2020

300,000
200,000

Probation investigation caseload 2010 to 2020

100,000
02010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
TOTAL
INVESTIGATIONINVESTIGATIONREFERRALSHANDLEDRECEIVEDYEARTOTAL INVESTIGATIONSHANDLEDINVESTIGATION REFERRALSRECEIVED

2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

7,034
8,634
8,810
9,298
8,190
10,795
10,71010,60138,384
91,126148,216

6,453
8,208
8,202
8,731
6,813
10,62910,50810,36736,366
78,103
120,923

Total / Average

38626,767

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2. Pre-Parole/Executive Clemency Investigation Caseload (Graph and Table)

YEAR

TOTAL
INVESTIGATIONSHANDLEDINVESTIGATIONREFERRALSRECEIVED

2010

1,207

1,144

2011

4,621

4,601

2012

2,115

1,766

2013

3,979

3,204

2014

5,164

4,175

2015

2,123

1,873

2016

5,603

4,961

2017
2018

3,371
3,473

3,228
2,839

2019
2020

5,543
5,839

4,909
5,207

Total

63,4703. Probation Supervision Caseload (Graph and Table)

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 113

YEAR

TOTAL
SUPERVISIONCASES HANDLED

SUPERVISIONREFERRALSRECEIVED

2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020

29,52330,38529,76829,23630,671
31,58233,01331,08842,637
71,669111,679

6,785
8,421
7,696
7,248
8,616
9,073
10,142
8,415
19,49640,02045,440Total/Average

458,896

4. Probation and Parole Officers
Supervision data reveals a sharp increase of 278.28%. On the other hand, the number of Probation and
Parole Officers handling cases has remained low with a felt decrease for the past two years. A spike in thenumber of filled Probation Officer positions is noted in 2019, with the creation of an additional 47 plantilla
positions for Probation Officer I and Probation Officer II in October 2019, as shown in the following data:
Summary of Filled Probation Officer Positions
Position Title

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

Unfilled
Positions
2021

Supervising Probation Officer

135

135

142

137

119

45

Senior Probation Officer

127

120

129

121

115

43

Probation Officer II

120

125

117

122

121

75

Probation Officer I

108

103

117

116

111

45

Total

490

483

505

496

466

208

In the selection of employees, the Agency has its own Merit and Selection system that is characterized
by observance of merit, fitness and equality principles in the screening of personnel for appointment andpromotion. The position of Probation Officer I is the entry level for field officers, which does not require
training and experience, whereas Probation II is a promotional position that requires one year of progressively
responsible experience in Probation or other related experience in order to qualify for promotion. As an
officer advances in rank to Senior Probation Officer and further, so should the required skills and competencies
according to position/rank. Required skills/competencies are: Investigation and Supervision skills, Adaptability,
People and Information Management, Communication, Process Management, Decision Making and Problem
Solving. The levels of competencies are: Basic (for POI), Intermediate (POII), Advanced (Sr. PO) and Expert(SPO).
In the face of the Agency’s dire need for manpower, there are several vacant/unfilled positions, which
are created by promotion to higher positions, retirement and other personnel movement resulting in thetermination or disengagement of employee from the service. Another reason why these positions haveremained unfilled over the past two years is because of the lack of authority of the incumbent OIC
Administrator to approve appointments (original appointments and promotion to higher positions) as thismatter is inherent to the Secretary of Justice pursuant to: Paragraph e), Section 19 of PD 968, which states:“recommend to the Secretary of Justice the appointment of the subordinate personnel of his Administration
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PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
and other offices established in this Decree;”
The reasons for the severance of work by the employees were because of retirement, transfer to anotherposition in another branch of the government, resignation due to migration/relocation to another country,
physical and mental health issues and death.

III. CHALLENGES
There are many challenges in the implementation of the rehabilitation programme for clients, but themost serious of them are the following:
1. The volume of caseload which brings the number to a disproportionate ratio of 1:330.59 for investigation
cases, whereas the supervision ratio stands at 1:270.778. The combined investigation and supervision
average caseload of every Parole and Probation Officer is 601.368. This computation is derived fromthe Profile of Clients 2020 (Source: probation.gov.ph). This unprecedented increase negatively impacts
the physical and mental health of Probation and Parole workers in addition to the effects of theCovid-19 pandemic;
2. Insufficient number of personnel to effectively conduct investigation and supervision of offenders andthe implementation of rehabilitation programmes for clients; and engagement of volunteers andcommunity partners and resources;
3. The Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent restrictions in mobility and access to most of the essential
services including clients and relevant stakeholders;
4. Lack of infrastructure for programme implementation to support the rehabilitation needs of offenders
in terms of appropriate and conducive office space, technology and resources;
5. Lack of funds for the implementation of rehabilitation programmes. Below are some of the pictures
taken during the conduct of group activities, which are usually held outdoors due to the lack ofappropriate facilities which deviates from the standards set forth by international mandates. Some ofthe photos depict clients’ desire and capacity to be productive members of the community by doingreforestation, coastal clean-up and classroom repairs despite the situation. Faces of clients aredeliberately blurred to protect their identity;
6. Limited capacity of staff to effectively implement a holistic approach to rehabilitation programmes thatare informed by gender-specific risks and needs assessment;
7. Limited capacity of staff to address the gender-specific treatment needs of women offenders, consistingof 126,183 individuals. Data obtained from the Profile of Clients 2020 revealed that women clientscomposed 13,294, or 10.35 per cent, of the total number of clients for the year 2020.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 113

At the moment, the Agency has no gender-specific treatment programmes for women offenders. Suchprogrammes are being advanced by international standards like the Standard Minimum Rules for Noncustodial Measures on the Treatment of Offenders (the Tokyo Rules), the Beijing Platform for Action, theUnited Nations Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Offenders (the Mandela Rules) and the United Nations
Rules for the Treatment of Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules). While it is true that in some regions,these international mandates are being cascaded to implementers for the purpose of creating or enhancing
awareness, still there is no specific programme design on how to implement or translate these principles into
activities or session plans as to form a component of the intervention programme for offenders.

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This international training, therefore, is a welcomed opportunity to the author, who is a Gender andDevelopment advocate. Incidentally, Gender and Development is a programme that is being advanced by thePhilippine Commission on Women pursuant to Republic Act 9710, otherwise known as The Magna Carta of
Women. RA 9710 defines Gender and Development as the development perspective and process that isparticipatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights,
supportive of self-determination and actualization of human potential. It seeks to achieve gender equality as
a fundamental value that should be reflected in development choices and contends that women are active
agents of development, not just passive recipients of development (pcw.gov.ph).
GAD was introduced in 1995 through Executive Order No. 273 – Approving and Adopting the Philippine
Plan for Gender-Responsive Development (PPGD) 1995-2025. The PPGD 1995-2025 is a 30-year perspective
plan that outlines the policies, strategies, programmes and projects that the government must adopt toenable women to participate in and benefit from national development, while EO 273 directs all government
agencies, departments, bureaus, offices and instrumentalities, including government owned and controlled
corporations, at the national level, sub-national and local levels:
1. To take appropriate steps to ensure the full implementation of the policies/strategies and programmes/
projects outlined in the Plan;
2. 	To institutionalize GAD efforts in government by incorporating GAD concerns, as spelled out in thePlan, in their planning, programming and budgeting processes.
A more recent issuance on the matter is Memorandum Circular No. 2011-01: Guidelines for the Creation,
Strengthening, and Institutionalization of the GAD Focal Point System, the purpose of which is: To provide
guidelines and procedures for the establishment, strengthening and institutionalization of the GAD Focal
Point System (GFPS) in constitutional bodies, government departments, agencies, bureaus, SUCs, GOCCs andall other government instrumentalities; and to clarify the roles and responsibilities, composition and structureof the GFPS to enable it to function as a mechanism for catalysing and accelerating gender mainstreamingin the agency towards the promotion of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (pcw.gov.ph).
In compliance with this requirement, the Agency has created national and regional GAD committees tolead in the mainstreaming of gender perspectives in order to promote and fulfil women’s human rights andeliminate gender discrimination in the Agency’s programmes, projects and activities and assess the gender
responsiveness of the systems, structures, policies, programmes and procedures, among others.
At present the PPA is at the end stages of programme development of treatment programmes informedby the Classification and Risk Needs Assessment (CARAT) tool, namely:
1) Livelihood and Employment Program (LEP) – designed to provide technical skills and capacities toclients to enable them to be self-sustaining and productive citizens.
2) I CARE Program – I am Committed, Accountable, Responsible, and Empowered (Criminogenic AntiSocial Personality Pattern) Program – tailored for clients with anti-social personality pattern, whichaims to increase self-awareness and enhance personal competency to manage negative behaviours.
3) “Hulagpos” Breaking Free from Drugs Program – intends to eliminate drug dependence of clients andencourage lifestyle change that is free from drugs.
The above-mentioned programmes were crafted as the result of assessment conducted among practitioners
as to what kinds of intervention programmes are the most needed by clients. Unfortunately, the needs ofwomen offenders were overlooked.

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IV. PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
A. Programme Development
1. Development of a gender responsive approach in the treatment of women offenders that looks into therealities of women’s lives, their strengths and challenges. A gender responsive approach will necessarily
include looking into programme development, content, material, programme site and infrastructure aswell as staff competency and selection. Guided by the Guiding Principles and Strategies for Effective
System Change by Dr. Stephanie Covington, treatment programmes for women offenders should be
gender specific, sensitive and responsive. They should be based on safety, respect, dignity and cultural
sensitivity not only for women clients but also for CICLs and other people impacted by the offence,
including the community. It should address substance use disorders, trauma and mental health issues
and should provide women with opportunities to improve their socio-economic conditions.
2. Designing of intervention programmes based on Women’s Risk-Needs Assessment (WRNA) by theTechnical Working Group.
3. Programme development for capacity-building training for implementers on GR Risk Needs Assessment
and gender-specific treatment programmes for women officers.
•

The training syllabus should include: Understanding trauma and victimization, GR criminogenic
risk assessment, GR case management, among others.

4. Training for implementers.
5. Pilot run of WRNA and GR Treatment Program for women offenders.
6. Assessment and evaluation of the result of pilot implementation.
7. Programme improvement and recommendations based on the result of programme evaluation
conducted.
8. Nation-wide implementation of WRNA and GR treatment programme to all women-offender clients of
the PPA.
9. Monitoring and evaluation.
10. Documentation and benchmarking of best practices to guide recommendations for continual
improvement.
B. Systems Improvement
1. Digitization of Records and Information Systems – (in addition to the existing data systems which are
already in place) enhancement of data systems that will enable the auto generation of required reports
like Sex Disaggregated Data (SDD), Socio Demographic Profile (SDP) and Client’s Profile (CP), and theuse of data derived from these reports, to assess, identify, plan and design appropriate intervention
programmes for women offenders. As a GAD programme requirement, periodic reports on SDD and
SDP of clients are being submitted by all field offices; however, these reports are not utilized enoughto determine the kind of rehabilitation programmes that are applicable to clients. Fortunately, there is
now an ongoing study and pilot test of intervention programmes based on the Classification Risk
Needs Assessment Tool (CARAT), but gender-specific needs of women offenders are still not among
the programmes that were crafted by the national Technical Working Group. This programme issponsored by UNODC and UNAFEI.
2. Fast tracking the improvement of the digitization programme in order to do away with manual
encoding of Sex Disaggregated Data (SDD), Client’s Profile (CP) and Socio-Demographic Profile (SDP)44

PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
reports. Manual preparation of these reports and all other periodic reports aggravate the volume ofcaseload, insufficient personnel compliment that results in the delay in report submission. This is notedin almost all of the field offices of the Agency. Also, the data may not be 100% accurate due to manyfactors. In order to address these issues and to lessen the workload and ensure accuracy and timelinessof reports, it is proposed that the Post Sentence Investigation Report should be linked to the existingdata system to auto generate SDD reports, whereas SDP reports could be auto generated once theclient is granted probation or parole, while accomplishment of the client’s Worksheet (interview sheet)
could auto-populate Records Check (RC) requests and Client’s Profile. RC and initial CP, therefore, aredependent on the accomplishment of the Worksheet, as SDD is to PSIR completion, whereas SDP isdependent on a grant of probation (Probation Order from the Court). In this way, personnel could focus
on more important tasks of rehabilitation of clients and community building.
C. Human Resource Development
The Parole and Probation Administration shall conduct periodic human resource development andmanagement assessment in the following areas:
1. Adequate facilities, equipment and resources to enable process owners to render responsive andefficient rehabilitation service to clients;
2. Staffing patterns and standards of work to ensure that the clients receive quality service;
3. Upgrading of work conditions and reclassification of positions to accurately reflect the functions andresponsibilities of probation officers as Parole and Probation Officers and to correct the disparity visà-vis other professions;
4. Opportunities for Probation and Parole Officers to grow professionally and to reach their potentials, toenable them to experience a sense of self-worth and dignity in their work;
5. Provision of funds for trainings, conventions, seminars, conferences and similar activities for Paroleand Probation Officers as part of their continuing professional growth;
6. Provision of mechanisms for democratic consultations.
D. Modernization of Strengthening of the Parole and Probation System
One of the biggest issues faced by the Philippine Corrections system is the overcrowding of jails andprisons. The congestion rate was registered at 403 per cent in 2020, equivalent to 115,336 prisoners occupying
facilities meant only for 34,893 people, the COA said in its report for BJMP.
Severe overcrowding of jails leads to dehumanization of persons deprived of liberty (PDL). Deaths, serious
illness, poor and dirty living conditions and inmate violence are among the consequences of overcrowding injails. Unresolved probation and parole/executive clemency cases contribute to the high volume of pendingcases awaiting resolution.
Release in the community through probation and parole is not only recognized as a tool for rehabilitatingclients and preparing them for their eventual reintegration into the community. To realize the ends that the
Agency seeks to achieve, it needs the necessary support and infrastructure. The passage of the proposed bill
“Magna Carta of Parole and Probation Workers", which is now reworded to “An Act Strengthening theParole and Probation Administration and Providing Funds Therefor” is hoped to address the lack of
manpower, the sad plight of the already overworked staff, professionalize the service and enhance digitization
capability of the Agency.

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