MALACAÑANG 
Manila

PRESIDENTIAL DECREE No. 28

ESTABLISHING SEVEN REGIONAL PRISONS AND CONVERTING EXISTING NATIONAL PENAL INSTITUTIONS INTO REGULAR PRISONS AND PENAL FARMS, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.

WHEREAS, there were pending before Congress prior to the promulgation of Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, certain priority measures vital to the establishment and maintenance of peace and order throughout the land;

WHEREAS, one of these priority measures is a bill, entitled “An Act Establishing Seven Regional Prisons and Converting Existing National Penal Institutions Into Regular Prisons and Penal Farms, Appropriating Funds Therefor, And For Other Purposes; ”

WHEREAS, this measure offers a positive solution to the problems bred by our overcrowded national prisons and perpetuated by an integrated system of confinement of various types of felons, irrespective of whether they are incorrigibles or merely first offenders;

WHEREAS, this bill will reduce the incidence of escapes among the national prisoners and promote their rehabilitation by bringing prisoners and their families and friends closer to each other:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution as Commander-in-Chief of all the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, as amended, and in order to effect desired changes and reforms in the social, economic and political structures of our society, do hereby decree that House Bill No. 4385, entitled “AN ACT ESTABLISHING SEVEN REGIONAL PRISONS AND CONVERTING EXISTING NATIONAL PENAL INSTITUTIONS INTO REGULAR PRISONS AND PENAL FARMS, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES,” is hereby adopted and approved, and made part of the law of the land: Provided; That there shall be immediately established, in lieu of the number and location of the penal establishments created thereunder, one regional prison in each of the following provinces and area: Leyte, Pangasinan and North-eastern Mindanao.

This decree shall take effect immediately: Provided: That amendments, changes and modifications may be made by me and the same shall take effect after my announcement thereof or by my duly designated representative.

Done in the City of Manila, this 25th day of October, in the year of Our Lord, nineteen hundred and seventy-two.

(Sgd.) FERDINAND E. MARCOS
President of the Philippines

By the President:
(Sgd.) ALEJANDRO MELCHOR
Executive Secretary

Source: Malacañang Records Office