Congestion forces CPDRC to stop accepting inmates

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center will no longer accept inmates starting Monday next week due to overcrowding.

CPDRC Jail Warden Romeo Manansala said the facility is no longer capable of accommodating more inmates as it already exceeded its maximum capacity.

CPDRC currently has 3,008 inmates, which is beyond its 1,600 capacity.  In fact, each of the 119 cells is being occupied by 30 to 40 inmates, which exceeds the standard 12 to 18 capacity.

 "The facility is suffering from over maximum capacity. We will cease accepting inmates on August 15 until notice of resumption," Manansala said.

Manansala personally delivered a letter to the Cebu Provincial Police Office yesterday to inform the police officials about it.

Governor Hilario Davide III, however, clarified that the provincial jail will still accept inmates with commitment order from the court.

"…but inmates from other municipal jails we will decline. If we keep on receiving samot mo-overcrowded," he said.

 He recalled that there were inmates who developed or acquired respiratory ailments from the jail due to severe congestion. Consequently, some of them have died in prison and others passed away while admitted in a government hospital.

 From June to July this year, at least 10 inmates from CPDRC have died of various ailments, including respiratory and heart-related disorder.

 One of the measures identified by the provincial government is to repair and construct additional prison cells to decongest the facility. The Capitol has already allotted P6 million for the construction of additional cells to address CPDRC's overpopulation problem and deaths among inmates.

 Provincial Health Office chief Dr. Rene Catan earlier said that infectious diseases have been one of the leading causes of deaths inside CPDRC.

Other measures to decongest the facility include the transfer of insular prisoners to the national penitentiary, hasten the resolution of cases, and release those who are done serving their sentence.

"We suspect that some of them have already served their time in jail angay na buhian. Ang uban wa naatiman ang kaso because they don't have lawyers so we will look into that," Davide said.

 Davide said there would be a convention among judges, lawyers, PNP, prosecutors, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and other concerned agencies to discuss how to decongest the jail and how to help the inmates who have pending cases.

Meanwhile, Police Regional Office-7 director Noli Taliño said they will continue police operations even if CPDRC is no longer accepting inmates.

"Tuloy-tuloy yong operation. Hindi pwedeng itigil yun dahil may target kami three to six months," he said.

 He said he will be meeting CPPO director Senior Superintendent Jose Macanas and Capitol officials to discuss the matter.  (FREEMAN)