Court room at City Jail
THE new Davao City Jail Court Room, located inside the jail facility, was officially turned over yesterday afternoon, September 7, to minimize the risk of transporting high-risk inmates when attending court trials.
Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP 11) regional director Jail Senior Superintendent (Jssupt) Amelia A. Rayandayan said the facility was funded by the Rotary Club of South Davao District 3860 and was formally unveiled yesterday.
The project was initi- ated to address the safety concern of the jail personnel when transporting the high-risk and highprofile inmates to attend court hearings. Thus, the inmates need not be escorted with numbers of jail guards since the court is now located inside the compound.
"This would be beneficial especially on high-risk and high-profile [inmates]. We are transporting them from jail to court and this is quite risky. This is for public safety," Rayandayan said in an interview.
She added that there were instances in the past, based on BJMP statistics, on rescue operations and ambushes while transporting the inmates, but she further clarified that it has not so far happened in Davao City.
BJMP 11 chief Community Relations Service Officer Jail Inspector Edo Lobenia told reporters that there are over 50 high-risk inmates inside the city Jail including seven Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, 15 New People's Army (NPA) members, three members of Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), five Maute terrorist group members and 27 organized groups.
"We are doing this to avoid the hassle of escorting because if we are going to escort these high profile inmates, we are going to require a lot of personnel. It will require augmentation coming from PNP, also from other law enforcement sector. This will minimize the risk so they will no longer be rescued by their comrades especially Maute," he said.
These inmates have separate rooms to avoid commotion inside the jail since each has different ideologies.
Lobenia said that in transporting an inmate, the ratio would be one inmate is to one officer, but for high-risk inmates it would be one is to one plus one jail guard.
"We have to exaggerate because we do not want to compromise the security of our personnel," he said.
The facility used to be an infirmary room and later converted to a court room. Its construction started last August 14 and was completed just this week. JCR (For full story visit www.sunstar.com. ph/davao/)