City jail benefits tied to better performance

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama yesterday said City Hall will not grant any kind of assistance to the Cebu City Jail unless the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology-7 improves its performance by preventing jailbreaks and stopping the smuggling of illegal drugs and other contraband into the jail.

Rama said this after talking with BJMP-7 assistant regional director for operations Senior Supt. Marlon Torregue, who visited City Hall yesterday to explain why warden Felixberto Jagorin Jr. has not yet been relieved.

The mayor earlier wrote BJMP-7 Regional Director Romeo Salazar recommending Jagorin’s relief because of his testimony in court that he cannot assure the safety of PO1 Adonis Dumpit who is jailed there for murder charges.

Torregue explained that while BJMP regional officials do not have any objection to the recommendation of Rama, they cannot just remove Jagorin from his post without the concurrence of their head office in Manila.

“Maghuwat pa kami kon unsay hukom sa BJMP Central office kay sila man usab ang mohatag og lista sa mga ngalan nga irekomendar nga maoy mohulip sa warden sa Cebu City Jail,” Torregue said.

In an interview with the reporters, Rama said he may not approve the request of the jail officials to reinstate the granting of a P200,000 monthly rice allowance for the prisoners unless the jail officials improve their performance by preventing jailbreaks and stopping the smuggling of contraband.

The city used to provide P200,000 for the monthly rice supply of the inmates of the former Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center, now the Cebu City jail, but this was stopped in 2002 because of reports that the jail officials just pocketed part of the prisoner’s food budget.

When then mayor and incumbent Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas Osmeña created a fact-finding committee to look into the reports, the jail officials refused to cooperate with the committee, which prompted Osmeña to stop granting the rice incentive to the jail.

A jail guard formerly assigned at the BBRC sent a text message to The FREEMAN saying “Please tell Mayor Rama not to give back the P200,000 meal allowance for the inmates. It will not go to the inmates’ meal, instead to the pockets of the jail officials.”

He added that when he was still assigned at the BBRC, the government allocated P30 for the food of each prisoner every day, but only P12 would be spent for the prisoners and the rest was allegedly pocketed by unscrupulous jail officials.

“Maybe you wonder why the inmates still survive with the P12 food budget every day? It's because they allow the parents or relatives of the inmates to give food to them every day,” the former guard explained. – (FREEMAN)