Restoration of jail conjugal visits backed

CEBU — Restoring the policy of allowing overnight stay of spouses or families of Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) inmates was not "flip-flopping," Secretary Jose Lina Jr. said yesterday.

"Let us put it in the context that conjugal visit is allowed," said Lina who was in Cebu to grace the ceremonial turn-over and distribution of portable fire pumps to various towns of Cebu, Negros Oriental and Bohol.

The BBRC gained notoriety in the public eye for liberally allowing the construction of shanties inside the inmates, cells to provide privacy during intimate moments between an inmate and his visiting spouse. Since these shanties also became the havens of alleged illegal dealings such as drugs, critical public pressure led to the recent demolition of these makeshift structures which already numbered to over a hundred.

Although the expected reprisals of the inmates did not happen, officials of Batang Cebu 45, however, approached the newly detailed jail warden Mamerto Baroro to reconsider his earlier decision suspending conjugal visits.

Baroro obliged the wishes of Batang Cebu 45, the only organization of BBRC inmates — a request that was also given the go-signal by BJMP assistant regional director Reynaldo Berdin. — Freeman News Service