67[2] and a new prison was built in Muntinlupa on a 5,310,872 m2 (57,165,750 sq ft)[6] land in an area considered at that time to be "remote".

Muntinlupa, then a municipality in the province of Rizal, is several miles southeast of downtown Manila, near the shores of Laguna de Bay.

[8] The regular prisoners tried to contribute to the war effort by donating blood for the soldiers and pledging to fight the Japanese if the government permitted.

[9] With the impending arrival of the Japanese in Muntinlupa, Misa sent then-NBP Superintendent (later Director of Prisons) Alfredo Bunye and his son Guillermo Misa to meet the Japanese forces in advance and “talk them out of entering the New Bilibid Prisons.” He then waited at the prison gates for whatever fate the invaders would give them.

Director Misa and the prison employees used their positions to secretly help the POWs by giving medical aid to the victims of torture, and allowing their families to visit them and be given food and letters.

[8][10] Director Misa's implicit support for the underground resistance movement encouraged the guerrillas to conduct operations within the prison premises.

[12] The Japanese wanted to execute Misa for this incident, but President Jose P. Laurel intervened by asserting that the Philippine government was already independent of Japan.

[12] Ringleaders Alfonso de la Concepcion and Manuel Fruto were later captured by the Japanese and executed.

[16] Following the Invasion of Lingayen Gulf, the guerrillas enlisted the cooperation of the prison's second in command, Major Adriano Valdez, in securing the welfare of the POWs.

1] When the US 11th Airborne Division landed in south Luzon in late January 1945, the Japanese became restless and executed selected military prisoners by February 3, 1945.

Weeks later, the American internees rescued from the Raid on Los Baños were brought to the prison to be given first aid and initial accounting.

[22] The Japanese were imprisoned inside the NBP until their release in 1953, following the executive clemency given by President Elpidio Quirino.

[28] In June 2014, Department of Justice Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, supervising official on the Bureau of Corrections and the NBP said that the National Penitentiary will be moved to Barangay San Isidro in Laur, Nueva Ecija.

The allegations were made by President Rodrigo Duterte after announcing that the two top convicted drug lords in the Philippines continued to run their drug rings from inside the national penitentiary, with former administration officials and their local government cohorts as co-conspirators.

"[36][37] The execution chamber for inmates sentenced to death by electrocution was in Building 14, within the Maximum Security Compound.

Gluckman wrote that the men's death row in Building One, was uncharacteristic of the rest of the prison: "The place reeks of gas burners, sewage, sweat and fear.

"[36][37] The prisoners pass the time in the basketball court in the penitentiary's gymnasium and are also engaged in the production of handicrafts.

[39] Research participants agree that the use of inmate leaders is an integral component of prison management in the MSC.

120 on December 15, 1992,[43] to the effect that 104.22 hectares (257.5 acres) of land be developed into housing for employees of the Department of Justice and other government agencies.