Detainees packed like sardines
9 male detainees join the female cell since the room supposedly for them has exceeded its capacity Mayor Cho gave Cordova police budget to expand detention cell, but it did not solve problem; more detainees expected when anti-drug ops resume
Di baling maka-violate, huwag lang silang mamamatay. SENIOR INSP. CELEMENTE GERALDE JR., CORDOVA POLICE CHIEF
Some male detainees of Cordova Police Station are sharing a detention cell with their female counterparts.
Desk officer SPO2 Laurencio Wagwag said that nine men joined nine females in a smaller stockade because the main jail, which can only accommodate 10 prisoners, has now 67 detainees. “Nasagolan og mga lalaki tun
god sa kahuot (Men were allowed in because the other cell had been filled),” he said, adding the male detainees were warned not to do anything foolish inside the female cell.
Senior Insp. Clemente Ceralde Jr., the town police chief, said he transferred the male detainees because they figured in a brawl with other detainees. “Di baling maka- violate, huwag
lang silang mamatay (Better do violations than die),” he said.
Ceralde expects the population of his detainees to increase in the coming days as the anti-drug operations resume.
Senior Supt. Eric Noble, the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) director, said congestion is common in most of the police stations.
He said Aloguinsan Police Station is not congested because it has a new police station and a bigger lockup cell. Only one person, a suspected drug pusher, was detained yesterday. CPPO has 50 police stations.
Noble said he is not an expert on jail matters, but suggested the local government units build their own jail facility.
His office is looking for other ways to solve the problem. “Maraming in at ang out kay
kukunti lang,” said Noble. Ceralde wrote to Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III early this year about their problem and he has yet to receive a reply. The police official wants more than 30 drug suspects included in the high-value target list to be transferred to another facility. “Nakakatakot baka makatakas (Scary they might escape),” he said.
Liloan Police Station’s detention cell is overcrowded, too.
Its lockup cell, which can only accommodate 20 to 30 detainees, holds 93. Most of them are facing illegal drug charges.
“Magduyan ang uban. Ang uban magpuli-puli og tulog (Some use a hammock. Some of them just take turns sleeping),” said SPO2 Bryan Batiquin. Detainees facing trial are sup- posed to be transferred to Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, but it had stopped accepting inmates from municipal police stations since August last year because it is overcrowded.
CPDRC’s current population is over 3,000 inmates and its minimum capacity is only 1,500 inmates. It is being guarded by 60 personnel.
Only 10 convicted inmates were transferred to a penal colony in Abuyog, Leyte last September.
Some of the detainees, who are mostly facing illegal drug charges, suffer cough and colds.
“Naa gani toy nadala sa clinic kay naghuot ang iyang dughan (Someone was brought to the clinic for chest pains),” he said.
Alert team members ferry the detainees of Liloan and Cordova police stations to courts in Mandaue City and Cebu City for their hearings every day.
In Cordova, Ceralde said that Mayor May Therese Sitoy-Cho gave funds to the police station for the extension of its detention cell last January, but it did not solve the problem.
The police official led the detainees in a moral recovery and livelihood program called “Bless the prisoners of PNP, Cordova” yesterday afternoon.
He initiated the program and tapped pastors. It is now on its second week.
“My purpose dito is maiwasan na maburyong sila sa loob (to prevent them from getting crazy inside),” said Ceralde. /