Inmate dies from pneumonia inside Pasay jail

Diseases continue to hound the detention facilities at Pasay City Police headquarters with the death of yet another inmate due to pneumonia and tuberculosis on Wednesday afternoon, police report said.

Rico Ramos, 44, died at Pasay City General Hospital due to communicable acquired pneumonia (CAP) and high-risk pulmonary tuberculosis, according to the Drug Enforcement Unit (DEU) of the Pasay police. He was arrested last July 12 for drug possession.

Ramos reportedly suffered serious coughing and seizure around 10 a.m. inside the detention cell of the Pasay-DEU prompting his coinmate, Rommel Brown, to inform Ramos’ condition to on-duty jail officers. Ramos was rushed to the hospital but died around 3:30 p.m.

Ramos’ body was brought to a funeral parlor for autopsy and safekeeping.

Senior Police Officer 1 Antonio Balois, of Pasay-DEU, acknowledged the dire condition of inmates at their detention facility, saying that the capacity of the jail exceeded to what it currently holds.

“Matagal na talaga naming problema ‘yan dahil hindi maiwasan ang sakit, siksikan tapos nagkakahawaan na sila ng mga sakit sakit. Dapat nasa sampu, kinse o bentesingko lang ang kaya niyan, kaso nasa singkwenta hanggang sitenta na sila ngayon sa dami ng huli namin, Balois told The Manila Bulletin. (It has long been a problem for us [overcrowded jail] because diseases rapidly spread among them. The capacity of the drug detention facility is around 10, 15 or 25 inmates but they already reached 50 to 70 because of the arrests we made.)”