Parañaque 2nd District Representative Brian Raymund Yamsuan has lauded the increase to P100 a day in the subsistence allowance of jail inmates under the 2026 national budget.
A former official of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Yamsuan is among the leading advocates of the proposal to increase the subsistence and medicine allowances of inmates, referred to as persons deprived of liberty (PDLs). The subsistence and medicine allowances per PDL had remained at P70 and P15 a day, respectively, since 2019.
“Persons deprived of liberty should be treated humanely, and with dignity and compassion. Kahit sino naman ay magsasabing kulang na kulang ang P70 a day para sa kanilang pagkain. (Anyone would say that P70 a day is severely inadequate to cover for their meals.). We hope that this long-overdue increase would improve efforts of our jail officials in meeting the nutritional needs of PDLs,” said Yamsuan, a former DILG Assistant Secretary.
“Given today’s food prices, one hundred pesos a day may still be not enough. But at least it’s a start. We will continue to push for humane living conditions for our PDLs, which is a key element in fueling their rehabilitation,” he added.
The Bicameral Conference Committee (Bicam) that tackled the then proposed 2026 General Appropriations Bill had approved the P100-per-day subsistence allowance for PDLs and a small hike to P20 a day for their medicine allowance.
These increases cover PDLs detained in jails supervised by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), an attached agency of the DILG; and penal facilities managed by the Bureau of Corrections, which is under the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Yamsuan, a member of the Bicam, lamented that the fiscal space under the 2026 budget did not allow for a significant increase in the medicine allowance of PDLs.
“A medicine allowance of P20 per day is obviously grossly inadequate, especially with only a handful of medical personnel tasked to provide healthcare services to PDLs detained in overcrowded and ill-maintained BJMP jails throughout the country. We will advocate for an increase in the medicine allowance of PDLs in the national budget for the next fiscal year,” Yamsuan said.
Yamsuan also expressed concern over the lack of funding for the rehabilitation of BJMP-supervised jails under the 2026 budget, which would have helped in the bureau’s decongestion efforts.
He pointed out that the increases in the subsistence and medicine allowances of PDLs for 2026 were based on a lower number of 141,843 assumed persons detained in BJMP jails for this year compared to the much higher 182,556 assumed number of PDLs in 2025.
“We are all aware of the congestion rate in our jails and the conditions of our PDLs. The BJMP should step up efforts to decongest its jail facilities this year to keep PDLs within the number assumed under the 2026 budget to ensure that the P100 daily subsistence allowance would fully benefit each detainee under its care,” Yamsuan said.
The latest available data show that the congestion rate in BJMP jails went down slightly from 296 percent in May 2025 to 286 percent in September 2025.
BJMP data as of July 2025 placed the total number of PDLs under its supervision at 115,065 inmates.
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, the then Bicam chair for the Senate, said that the rehabilitation of BJMP jails was also strongly pushed by Sen. JV Ejercito during the Senate deliberations on the 2026 budget, “and we were all inclined to do it, but because of the fiscal space, we cannot accommodate the request.”
