A troubling financial scandal has emerged at the Correctional Institution for Women (CIW) in Mandaluyong City, where human rights group Karapatan reports that P6 million in detainee funds has gone missing. These "trust funds," which consist of money sent by families to help inmates afford basic necessities and supplement meager prison meals, appear to have been mishandled by Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) staff. With only P7 million accounted for out of P13 million in total remittances, prisoners are demanding a full investigation by the Department of Justice and the Commission on Human Rights, as well as an immediate end to the current trust fund system.

The situation has been further complicated by the CIW superintendent’s controversial plan to recover the stolen money. Rather than holding corrupt officials accountable, management allegedly plans to hike the cost of prisoner telephone calls and divert those profits to cover the shortfall. This proposed solution has sparked outrage among detainees, who argue that they are being forced to pay for the negligence of the prison staff. The prison system's reliance on internal stores for essential supplies—which are often managed by personnel—creates a breeding ground for exploitation, leaving those behind bars with little recourse but to call for a transparent, third-party audit of the facility’s financial operations.