MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) has created its own handbook for the implementing guidelines on custodial handling and management of inmates.
The handbook titled Detention Facility Manual was formulated with the help of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
"The PDEA Detention Facility Manual encompasses the basic rules and procedures every PDEA custodial officer must know and understand with regard to humane safekeeping, security and control of individuals who were arrested and temporarily held at our detention facilities for drug-related offenses," PDEA Director Arturo Cacdac Jr. said.
"The PDEA-BJMP Manual of Operations was collaboratively done for the purpose of standardizing the conduct of Operation: 'Greyhound' nationwide, to search and preempt the influx of prohibited items, most especially illegal drugs, inside prison cells," Cacdac added.
He said that the framework of the PDEA-BJMP manual conforms to the standard and requirements of the Commission on Human Rights.
Cacdac lauded the members of the technical working group headed by the PDEA Intelligence and Investigation Service (IIS) for the creation and development of the PDEA Detention Facility Manual and the PDEA-BJMP Manual of Operations.
He also thanked the BJMP for lending a hand during the whole process.
"Finally, we have a detention facility manual that we can call our own. I encourage every personnel, particularly PDEA prison guards, who have recently undergone a two-week custodial officers' training, to embrace this manual by heart and understand the policies surrounding it," Cacdac said.
The ceremonial signing of the manual was held during the flag raising ceremony last Tuesday at the PDEA National Headquarters in Quezon City with main signatories, Cacdac and BJMP chief jail Director Diony Mamaril.