Sacked Cebu City jail men still in place

CEBU CITY — President Arroyo’s sweeping and supposedly immediate relief of all personnel of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center here has remained unheeded.

All 56 jail officials and guards affected by the President’s order given Saturday morning were still in place at the city jail.

The President sacked everyone at the BBRC on the spot upon learning about the alleged massive corruption and anomalies hounding the city jail.

But when interviewed by cellular phone from Manila, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Marius Corpuz said the continued stay of the affected personnel did not constitute any defiance of the President’s directive.

Corpuz said the order could not be complied with immediately owing to technicalities as well as manpower deficiencies at the BBRC.

In her order, given in a nationwide televised forum with barangay officials, the President wanted Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina to immediately relieve or suspend all BBRC personnel and have then replaced temporarily by policemen.

But Corpuz, after conferring with regional police director Rolando Garcia and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) regional director Reynaldo Berdin, said compliance with the order would have to wait until the release of guidelines on the deployment of policemen or new personnel at the city jail.

Corpuz believes that policemen are ill-prepared to take over the jail’s management. But he stopped short of criticizing the President’s order, saying it was not exactly unwise and that there are, in fact, many remote places where policemen man the jails.

Still, Corpuz fears the number of policemen in Central Visayas is spread too thinly that if any number of them are detailed at the BBRC, certain police units will certainly be affected. There are about 6,000 policemen in the region.

He insisted that the police are not trained to manage jails and that it is best to let the BJMP continue holding that responsibility but this time augmented by the police.

To address the problems at the BBRC, the city government has formed an oversight committee to identify areas that need immediate reforms.

Drugs, guns and other weapons somehow never seem to stop getting smuggled into the jail, where some favored inmates also get to enjoy privileges like computers, cellular phones and even a billiard table.

Some detainees have private cells where they can enjoy the comforts of women. Some married inmates are allowed to bring in their entire families to live with them.

BBRC warden Primitivo Benitez said he was prepared to vacate his post. Late Saturday, he already got his marching papers remanding him back to the BJMP regional office. Zamboanga City jail warden Mamerto Baroro has been ordered to replace him. — Freeman News Service