Jail officials repair "peeping holes"

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Jail officials have already repaired the jail’s searching rooms to stop some unscrupulous jailers from peep through the intentionally-made holes on the wall to look at women-visitors while they are stripped of their clothes.

The FREEMAN yesterday visited the Cebu City jail in barangay Kalunasan and found that new pieces of plywood were put in place as walls of the searching rooms, particularly the wall that divides the searching rooms for the male and female visitors.

The renovation of the searching rooms, located some two meters away from the jail’s entrance, was still ongoing as of noontime yesterday as some of the doors were still being detached.

Although jail warden Maria Victoria Jimenez denied that some jailers were peeping through the holes at the searching rooms for women, she failed to give a categorical answer on why she replaced the walls.

Anyone who wishes to get inside the city jail to visit their detained relatives are required to strip of their clothes to make sure that they are not carrying contrabands, like drugs. Women visitors are required to remove their underwears and to squat facing a mirror so the searcher can see that there are no illegal drugs hidden in her private parts.

The FREEMAN informer from the city jail praised Jimenez for correcting the illegal activities of some of the jail guards. But for the warden, he should have reported directly to her instead of the media.

“Kon gusto niya nga ma-corrected ang mga dili maayong binuhatan sa City Jail ari unta nako niya gipadangat ang report,” said Jimenez.

The informer called up The FREEMAN yesterday and belied the claim of Jimenez that the packs of shabu that were smuggled for the inmates were a product of “bombing,” or that these were lobbed into the jail from outside the perimeter fence.

“Dili g’yud na tinuod Sir. Kon hugtan lang g’yud nila pag-search ang tanang tawo nga mosulod sa city jail mahunong g’yud ang shabu dinhi. Kanang ilabay gikan sa gawas sa koral kadto ra nga mga baraha, sigarilyo ug nubain,” the informer said. (If they only search the visitors well, drug trade inside the jail will be stopped.)

Jimenez escorted this reporter around the jail’s catwalk to convince him that the “bombing” of contrabands are usually done in between towers 4 and 5 because the perimeter fence in these areas is not high.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)-7 officials have promised to help the jail authorities gather information to curtail the drug trafficking inside the Cebu City jail. — (FREEMAN)