CPDRC visits cancelled after Tuesday raid

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center management has suspended the visitation privileges of the inmates after authorities confiscated contraband from them during a raid on Tuesday.

The management decided yesterday to defer the visitation privileges as punishment for the inmates’ incessant illegal activities even behind closed doors.

Bobby Legaspi, the new acting jail warden, said the suspension will remain in effect until the augmentation force from the Provincial Public Safety Company of the Cebu Provincial Police Office will be put in place.

"The reason why we suspended the dalaw, the conjugal visits just to make sure nothing comes in during the brief period that the PPSC from CPPO gets deployed here," Legaspi said.

Legaspi replaced jail warden Gil Macato, who was relieved Wednesday following the raid at the provincial jail Tuesday dawn. Macato served as warden for about four months.

The operation yielded communication devices and sachets of suspected shabu. It was carried out by personnel of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-7, Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Authorities recovered 76 cellular phones, including those of a suspected drug personality, 19 medium sachets of shabu worth at least P30, 000, cash amounting P92, 000, laptop and media players, lighters and drug paraphernalia.

Last year, the privileges also were cancelled several times following the escape of an inmate, inmates’ altercation, and reported illegal drugs trade inside the jail facility, among others.

Legaspi said he already asked security assistance from CPPO yesterday.

In a letter-request, Legaspi asked CPPO Director Senior Superintendent Eric Noble to deploy 20 PPSC personnel to help guard the province-run facility.

Noble, in a separate interview, assured to beef up security  at CPDRC once tapped for the security augmentation at the jail.

He said he would detail two teams, or a total of 14 policemen, to secure the jail facility.

“I have yet to talk with Bobby. We have good coordination before,” he told reporters.

He said police may secure the main gates of the penitentiary or conduct roving, depending on the delineation to be determined by the jail management.

With police assistance, Legaspi assured to implement stricter policies to ensure that no contraband will slip again into the jail facility.

"We're going back to the old (system). When we say the old one, when I was here before, Monday to Friday, it worked before so why fix it if it wasn't broken? So we're going back to that. It divides the inmates into room numbers so that number was pretty good number where we can actually keep control of things coming in and out on a daily basis,” he said.

 The policemen, he said, will be assigned at the entry and/or exit points of the facility to conduct a thorough inspection upon visitors’ entry. Food will also be checked.

"We still have the PDEA K9 handlers here. They will handle, will go back to the three-tier system. The checkpoints will be one at the front, then after that they have to go passed the K9 units, and the third will be the inspection inside here. So three inspection areas before they can be allowed to go inside," Legaspi explained.

Legaspi said further that they have already identified the prison guards who are suspected cohorts of erring inmates, but he refused to disclose their names yet.

"Until proven guilty, I won't release the names. They're being investigated now, the process is going to start,” he said, adding that guards will no longer be allowed to have contacts with inmates.

In August last year, policemen were detailed to augment security at provincial jail amid reports on the plot to rescue alleged drug personality Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro from the jail.

Alvaro, the alleged associate of slain suspected drug lord Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz, surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation office in Bohol office following the death of Diaz.

However, the police augmentation was eventually pulled out from the provincial jail four months after.The move was reportedly upon the directive of Davide, according to Macato in an interview last year. — Le Phyllis F. Antojado and Michael Vencynth H. Braga (FREEMAN)