Osmeña eyes jail facility in Inayawan

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is planning to convert the controversial Inayawan Sanitary Landfill into a jail facility to decongest the detention cells of different police stations in the city.

 “What I envision is to try to visualize a jail of one hundred prisoners so we have two dozen jails of 100 prisoners all in one place. In other words they don’t mix with each other, they cannot make sabot,” Osmeña said.

The mayor also eyed the area as possible golf course in two to three years but he had a change of mind after the police raised the issue of congestion in their respective detention cells.

“There is a need because our jail is so crowded it becomes... it makes easier to become a distribution center for drugs,” Osmeña said.

The mayor said he will work out to source out funds for the construction of the jail facility.

 “I cannot target when we’re going to construct it, we have to increase our tax collection, I know all of these things will improve but when, I don’t know,” he added.

Osmeña asked the other cities to get their prisoners at the Operation Second Chance in Barangay Kalunasan because the city government cannot cater to them anymore.

“In Operation Second Chance we’re telling the other cities to remove their prisoners from our jail, it’s almost half. We’re congested in operation second chance so we cannot cater them anymore,” he said.

Under the law, all cities are required to have a facility for juvenile delinquents. In Cebu Province only Cebu City has it.

Meanwhile, Councilor David Tumulak has requested the judiciary to expedite the disposition of cases to avoid jail congestion.

“But kita sa city government we also honor the rights sa suspects. Kay as of this moment, since court has not yet decided they’re considered innocent. Pangitaan paagi but not in the sense nga transfer to other precincts,” he added.

Cebu City Police Office acting director Senior Superintendent Joel Doria said the estimated 35 drug suspects arrested every week has contributed to the jail congestion problem in the city.

He said detention cells in police stations can only accommodate five to 20 prisoners. (FREEMAN)