Nine inmates for transfer to Abuyog
Nine inmates from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) will be transferred to the regional jail in Abuyog, Leyte next week.
Warden Reynaldo Valmoria said that the inmates are facing drug charges. Their names are withheld for security reasons.
For years now, insular inmates are transferred from the provincial jail to the Abuyog Penal Colony while others are moved to the National Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa.
Valmoria said the transfer can help decongest the provincial jail but only by a little fraction. In the latest count, there are 3,942 inmates in the facility which is already over 200 percent of its intended capacity.
The moves to stop the admission of new inmates and the transfer of prisoners to other jail facilities are only short term solutions as jail congestion has become a national issue.
In a meeting last week, Valmoria and other department heads are considering the idea of building satellite provincial jails. To decongest CPDRC which is located in the heart of the province, they are eyeing to build one satellite jail facility each in the north, south, and mid-west of the province of Cebu.
Provincial Legal Officer Orvi Ortega said that this is all still in the concept level and no formal proposal has been drafted yet.
He said that there is still a need for the provincial government to wait for the decision of the national legislators whether to approve the pending bill to transfer the management of jail facilities from the local government units to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
The lawyer explained that it would be counterproductive should the provincial government push through with the proposal with a pending bill which may override the efforts and expenditures of the Capitol.