1 more inmate dies at Cavite police jail

CAMP GEN. PANTALEON GARCIA, Imus, Cavite – Another jail inmate death was reported in Cavite, this time at the Dasmariñas police custodial facility.

At least 25 detainees from jails in the neighboring cities of Dasmariñas, General Trias, Imus and Bacoor, have died from different causes in the last four months.

The four city jails are woefully overcrowded and lack adequate ventilation. Congestion and heat exhaustion have been blamed for the deaths of sickly inmates.

Relatives of detainees and observers fear that the number of deaths will rise further during the summer season.

Cavite was named as one of the provinces that could be hit by a dry spell and even a drought within the next six months. The inmates, most of them detained while their cases are tried, will suffer most as temperatures soar.

The Cavite Police Provincial Office identified the latest fatality as Reggie Miasis Real, 48, a resident of Barangay Burol Main, Dasmariñas.

Real, who was detained on drug charges, was declared dead at the Pagamutan ng Dasmariñas, where he was brought after he collapsed at the local police jail Tuesday.

SPO1 Elmo Caboboy and PO3 Paulo Figueroa, officers-on-case, citing a doctor’s report, said Real succumbed to septic shock, pneumonia and tuberculosis.

He was reportedly the fourth inmate at the Dasmariñas police jail to have died in just one month’s time.

The city and municipal police jails have been congested for the last three years because of the swarm of arrested drug suspects.

The Cavite police said 5,567 drug personalities have been arrested in the province’s eight districts in 2018 alone. The bulk is detained in city jails and the municipalities of Rosario, Kawit and Silang, to name a few.

Authorities have yet to come up with the exact number of detainee deaths in 2018 and the first three months of 2019.

Meanwhile, the number of inmates at the Imus police custodial facility is expected to be reduced soon with the installation of several more cells at the police station’s third floor.

An officer said there are 140 detainees at the jail which is designed to accommodate only 60.