Cebu jail inmates make noise to protest abuses

CEBU CITY – Inmates at the Cebu City jail held a noise barrage Tuesday night to protest what they said were abuses of jail personnel following the recapture of an escapee.

Jail personnel used tear gas to stop the inmates in Cell 1 from continuing with the noise barrage. The cell is where the escapee, Marvin Gimpeso, is detained. He was rearrested days after he bolted jail.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) sent an investigator to the jail Wednesday morning to check claims that Gimpeso was tortured after he was rearrested.

Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak said he received information that Gimpeso was hanged upside down and tortured. Gimpeso earlier said he escaped because of the abuses of jail guards and the quality of jail food.

Tumulak said he was surprised to learn that Gimpeso was brought back to jail because he ordered city jail officials to keep the escapee in a hospital for treatment.

The jail warden, Supt. Arnel Peralta, said his men used tear gas to quell the disturbance at Cell 1 and prevent a further escalation of tension.

Peralta denied the torture allegations and the abuses by jail personnel.

At the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), 20 grams of shabu worth R236,000 were found during a search of the facility’s canteen Tuesday afternoon.

Chief Insp. Rolan Aliser, chief of the drug enforcement unit of the provincial police, said some of the 27 small sachets, two medium packs, and two large packs of shabu were found in egg trays at the canteen counter and hidden in the canteen’s ceiling.

At least 27 cellphones and chargers, a portable DVD player, sharp weapons and a tally sheet for an illegal numbers game and R18,000 cash were also seized from cells 69, 73, 32, and 46 of the center’s male dormitory.