Signal jammers installed in Mandaue jail

CEBU, Philippines - The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) is installing high-technology signal jamming devices inside the Mandaue City Jail’s male dormitory, where 1,360 inmates are currently detained.

Mandaue City Jail Warden Superintendent Renante Rubio said the devices will be installed within a 15-meter radius in the jail in order to avoid disrupting the cellular service for the residential areas surrounding the jail facility.

Rubio also said they still need to observe if the jamming devices will not disrupt any of their jail operational tasks.

"The device is yet to be observed for its actual functionality so as not to disrupt the administrative and operational tasks in jail, because our system for reporting within the Bureau is made through emails and other internet based methods," Rubio said.

The move for the installation of signal jammers came after the BJMP, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-7, and the Mandaue City Police Office confiscated improvised weapons and two cellular phones during a “greyhound operation” conducted inside the jail facility last January.

Around 800 of the 1,360 inmates in Mandaue City have been detained due to their alleged involvement in illegal drugs.

Although no illegal drugs were found during the January raid, some drug paraphernalia has been recovered.

Mayor Gabriel Luigi Quisumbing said that despite the fact that there were no drugs found inside the jail, it is still necessary to have signal jammers in the facility.

He said that without cellular phones, the illegal drug trade could be eradicated since mobile phones are the main communication devices used in the conduct of the trade. —/JBB (FREEMAN)