When she finally decided to bid pharmacy goodbye three years after graduation and embraced the uniformed service, Jail Superintendent Maria Lourdes Pacion of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology- Manila City Jail Female Dormitory never looked back.

For this Cagayano from Piat, here is a job that demands the utmost challenges, dedication, commitment, and understanding of humanity, the seemingly invisible world of Persons Deprived of Liberty (PDLs).

As a good-natured individual with three young children, bubbly Maria Lourdes Pacion took to a custodial job as fish would water. After only two years in her present position and assignment, her career came into full bloom and showed the kind of service a Cagayano can offer to fellowmen. She began a string of programs and projects as if there’s no tomorrow which benefited not only her bureau but the PDLs themselves.

So far, the Manila City Jail Female Dormitory is the only BJMP facility in the country that has merited a six-hour visit by Vice-President Sara Duterte since her election, when she became a guest at that ALS graduation inside the refurbished building. Knowing the tight schedule of a national official, the six-hour visit is indeed significant for any government agency.

“The two projects alone made her a true public servant and we always wanted to work with her,” James Grasparil, an extension service provider from Far Eastern University, said.

For both PDLs and their families, money has always been a problem. While the BJMP provides various livelihood training, products are not pushed as hard as Pacion did. It resulted in the provision of P156,014 in cash as part of the 40 percent share of the PDLs from P395,036 in sales of products and cooperative management. It was concrete proof that those in temporary custody can likewise provide financial assistance to their families.

Pacion has mastered the art of persuasion and public relations and in all her jail assignments, she always left a legacy behind. Non-government organizations and the government never remiss in tapping her shoulders through the various awards they have lavished on her so far.

In 2021 during her stint as Female Warden of Quezon City Jail, her “No Women Left Behind’ project was considered a significant milestone in the country promoting the rights and well-being of female PDLs. Pacion inked a Memorandum of Agreement with LGU-Manila, the military, and academe to provide PDLs with essential health and education services through ALS as it likewise aimed at advocating these rights.

Its significance lies in the promotion of gender equality and women’s rights as it highlights the importance of addressing the specific needs and vulnerabilities of women within the gender responsive program. It likewise enhanced the rehabilitation and reintegration efforts of the government.

By this time, Pacion admitted she had trained young officers to somehow continue a tradition of service excellence to benefit both their employer and the target clients.

“My retirement nears and I hope I was able to provide service as I know how. To see a PDL smile means a lot to me, and us. It means we got results from our jobs,” Malou, a term of endearment, said.

Indeed, the loss of the pharmaceutical world is the gain of human custodial services. For Jail Superintendent Maria Lourdes Pacion, leadership is service, not position. (OTB/ADS/PIA Region 2 with reports from Benjie S. De Yro)