particularly public servants whom she believes are in the best position to bring concrete and positive changes for the benefit of persons deprived of liberty and reform in the system of handling their concerns. She urged them to keep with the philosophy of restorative justice in mind and reminding them that it entails repairing the harm costs or revealed by criminal behaviour through cooperative processes that include stakeholders. In that spirit, she ensured that her words of advice were transferred into action and possible solutions. Again, through a paradigm of collaboration among various stakeholders, she sought inputs from everyone including from the CHRP regarding necessary changes to the nation’s penal facilities. In July 2011, she formed and convened a Technical Working Group (TWG) that was mandated to “identify and address problems and concerns affecting the New Bilibid Prison (NBP), Correctional Institute for Women (CIW), the five penal farms and colonies and the entire Bureau of Corrections (BUCOR). This was done in close cooperation with concerned agencies including the Boards of Pardons and Parole, Parole and Probation Administration and Bureau of Corrections. These efforts culminated in both executive level reforms within the concerned penal facilities as well as broader legislative reforms primarily through the passage of Republic Act No. 10575 or the “BuCor Modernisation Act of 2013” which were achieved through the cooperation of lawmakers in both houses of Congress. III. Member of Parliament Attorney Katherine C. stated that Senator De Lima however knew very well that the reforms mandated at the agency and department levels and even the BuCor Modernisation Act and its accompanying implementing rules and regulation were not enough to serve as a panacea in the Philippines prison system. Thus, when she leaves her post as the Secretary of Justice, she tried to solve the perennial problem of over congestion in jails. Attorney Katherine C. mentioned that the jail congestion rate as of October 2021 was at 408% while congestion rate in the National Penitentiary was at 311% as of December 2020. At this level, a constant challenge is to prevent perilous facilities which are not designed to handle such level of occupancy from falling apart and depriving the rights of persons deprived of liberty from even the most basic rights such as standard shelter and sanitation let alone the higher aims of reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration. Even prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, jails in the Philippines are already considered a death trap. Attorney Katherine C. informed that more than 5,200 inmates die annually in the country’s largest prison, the New Bilibid Prison.82 This happened due to overcrowding, poor living conditions and inmate violence. Contributing to this is also a lack of ready access to medical services. By 2019, there were only four (4) doctors and 40 nurses attending a community of 18,000 prisoners. Currently, there are only 12 doctors for the 470 BJMP facilities nationwide. 82 Ernesto Tamayo, Chief Medical Officer of the Philippines during a Senate Hearing in 2019 63