Gwen orders probe of erring jail guard

Governor Gwendolyn Garcia has ordered an investigation of Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center jail guard Manolito Belandres after he allegedly failed to immediately return to jail the inmate he escorted to a court hearing in Bogo town last Wednesday.

Pablo John Garcia, Capitol consultant on information, organization and management, said the governor has already tasked the committee on discipline and investigation headed by Manolette Dinsay to conduct a fact-finding inquiry into the said incident.

"His preventive suspension has been recommended and the governor is expected to act on it in due course because there's also a process to be followed before a preventive suspension can be issued or not issued," he told reporters yesterday afternoon.

Belandres reportedly let CPDRC inmate Alvin Inot visit his family in Daanbantayan town after the hearing of his murder case in Regional Trial Court Branch 61 in Bogo town last Wednesday.

To justify their failure to return immediately to CPDRC, Belandres reportedly called up the said jail facility and informed them of Inot's supposed escape and that he had to track him down, when in reality he got drunk in Inot's house.

Worried that his son might be subject of a hot pursuit operation, Inot's father urged his son to wake up Belandres and the two returned to CPDRC last Thursday afternoon.

Belandres was reportedly still drunk when they arrived. He was found with P300 when the blue guards frisked him. He also had three fighting cocks with him at the time.

Belandres allegedly asked P400 from Inot for their transportation fare when the latter asked to visit his family in his hometown.

Upon learning of the said incident last Thursday, Capitol consultant on security concerns Byron Garcia said he received reports it was not the first time Belandres committed such a lapse.

He said he will recommend to the governor to put Belandres under preventive suspension. - Cristina C. Birondo