Gwen Garcia
Says Gov. Hilario Davide’s inclusion in Duterte honor list a ‘hilarious’ mistake
House Deputy Speaker and Cebu third district Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia has raised before Congress the “deeply troubling and frustrating developments” at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC).
She was poised to file a resolution calling for an investigation into what she believed to be the gross mismanagement and administration of the provincial jail by Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III.
Garcia also called Davide’s inclusion in the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) honor list of 10 governors which was read by President Rodrigo Duterte as a “mistake” and the “irony of ironies” considering the CPDRC “horror stories that have culminated in a comedy of errors.”
In a privilege speech yesterday, Garcia recited a series of “lamentable” events at the CPDRC, including a raid on the facility conducted last month by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7) and Philippine National Police (PNP) which resulted to the confiscation of several contraband items inside the jail.
“The raid on the provincial jail in the early hours of August 13 merely confirmed how horribly mismanaged it is. The home of our famous inmates has become a drug den,” Garcia said.
“One of the inmates was even found in a compound just outside the CPDRC with drugs, debit cards, and cash. According to a police report, the suspect claimed to be the caretaker of fighting cocks allegedly owned by CPDRC warden Romeo Manansala, an appointee of Governor Davide himself,” added Garcia.
Garcia also told members of the House about the early morning escape of an inmate who pretended to be a guest in the maximum security prison, the death of more than 10 inmates in a span of five weeks mostly due to pneumonia and the confiscation of a laptop and cellphone last August 4 from a female inmate serving time for human trafficking which gave rise to suspicions that she continued with her cyberporn activities while behind bars.
Garcia also narrated that social media went abuzz with a photo that went viral showing five CPDRC inmates sitting at the back of an open multicab and watched by a lone jail guard while traveling to court with two of the five inmates smoking cigarettes while the jail guard wore dark glasses and earphones.
Provincial jail consultant Marco Toral also fired a warning shot using a blank cartridge violating prison rules, two days after the escape of an inmate.
Garcia described Toral to House members as an “ex-convict out on appeal from a life sentence due to drug-related crimes” whom Davide appointed for his “experience”.
Questioning Davide’s choice of Toral for the post, Garcia said:
“Seriously? Obviously Toral had applied this ‘experience’ in making sure all of the monumental gains we’ve made with the CPDRC are erased… completely wiped out!”
“The CPDRC was a source of pride, a best practice model. How has it come to this? Who is responsible? Who else? How have we, in such short a time, transitioned from pride to peril, from showcase to shame? It is a tragedy how quickly we’ve descended from a real-life ‘Jail House Rock’ to hitting rock bottom,” Garcia said in her speech.
Weeks before a Provincial Board (PB) investigation into alleged anomalies at the CPDRC was launched last month, Toral resigned as jail consultant. Manansala — the jail warden — also resigned after appearing before the PB.
Cebu Daily News tried to reach Davide, Toral and Manansala for comment on Garcia’s speech, but the governor and Manansala refused to answer calls and texts on their phones last night.
While Toral said: “Ambot ngano mo-ingon sila nga bad way akong pagdala. In fact if they ask the inmates it is the other way around man. Wa silay kalibutan sa akong gibuhat sa CPDRC. (I don’t know why they are saying that I badly managed the jail. If they ask the inmates, it was the other way around. They just don’t know the things that I’ve done).”
World-class facility
Garcia reminded Congress of what CPDRC was before Davide took over the reigns by showing an old 9-minute documentary on the jail.
“Under my watch as governor, the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center became a world-class facility worthy of emulation; that while other Philippine jails were hounded by controversies, our provincial jail became an international showcase evoking national pride,” Garcia said.
Garcia cited the over 50 million YouTube views garnered by the CPDRC dancing inmates after a video of their performance of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was first uploaded on the web in April 2007.
“Our work with the provincial jail was featured by CNN and many other news organizations, with international media like the New York Times hailing the CPDRC’s use of dance as part of its rehabilitation program for drug dependent inmates,” she said.
According to Garcia, CPDRC’s “sad and sorry state” is an issue that is very close to her heart as she served as Cebu governor for three consecutive terms.
“The Cebu provincial jail became a source of collective pride for our people. But more than the pride . . . it is what the experience meant to each and every inmate that truly mattered. That they could be a part of something big — that they could, despite their past, bring pride to their country and to their families — is perhaps the most important and inspiring fragment of the dancing inmates success story,” said Garcia.
The experience, she added, gave more meaning to the word “rehabilitation” — because then it meant redemption for someone who wishes to change and second chances.
“Yet here we are, 9 years after the dancing inmates shot to global fame and wowed the world, and only three years since Hilario Davide III became governor, and the CPDRC is making headlines once more; alas, for all the wrong reasons,” said Garcia.
Honor list was “hilarious”
The Cebuano legislator added that while much has changed in the last two months since President Duterte assumed office with government’s efforts to clean up the National Bilibid Prison starting to bear fruit, the state of CPDRC today was a “mockery of the President’s efforts”.
“Whether by sheer lethargy or by outright complicity, the current occupant of the Cebu Capitol is derailing our shared desire for a better country. In short, while the country moves forward, Cebu is moving backwards. Regression. Degradation. Degeneration,” Garcia said.
“All these happened under the current governor’s watch. . . . The irony of ironies is we now find Governor Davide in the DILG’s ‘honor list’ of 10 governors to be cited for stemming the illegal drug trade in their respective provinces. As his misspelled name says on the list, it’s a ‘hilarious’ turn of events,” she quipped.
“But for many, his misspelled name is not the only mistake on that list,” Garcia added.
According to Garcia, a number of the governors on the list were her friends who deserved to be there.
“What they do not deserve though is to be listed alongside someone so undeserving, so unworthy, so wanting in credibility, that his inclusion renders the entire list suspect,” she said.
Garcia then told the House that Davide must be made to answer for his “abysmal failure” in managing the affairs of CPDRC as the Duterte administration cannot risk losing momentum in its war against illegal drugs.
“The Cebuanos and the Filipino people deserve an explanation,” Garcia said, adding that Davide cannot simply skirt the issue by suggesting that the provincial jail’s management be transferred to the BJMP.
“This is a desperate attempt at deflecting this grave issue without accepting real accountability and responsibility for what has already happened under his watch. Is this not dereliction of duty?” Garcia asked.
Under Section 1731 of the Revised Administrative Code of 1917, the provincial governor is the mandated keeper of the provincial jail.
Garcia also cited the Local Government Code which provides the creation, improvement and management of jails as among the powers and duties of the Provincial Government which include the institution of a sound jail management program.
Referring to Davide’s inclusion in the DILG’s honor list, Garcia said, “One cannot bask in the honor of recognition on the one hand, and refuse to answer the hard questions on the other. . . . For how can one be awarded for helping curb the illegal drug trade in the Province of Cebu when the CPDRC has become known as a source of drugs in the Province of Cebu under your watch?”
“You either admit to having tacit knowledge, to being complicit, or to being painfully incompetent and ignorant. Either way it is completely unacceptable,” said Garcia.
Davide secures CPDRC
Earlier yesterday, Davide told reporters that police will continue to help secure CPDRC until its affairs are in order.
“We already agreed with (provincial police) director (Jose) Macanas that police will still continue securing the jail until we will be very satisfied with the results and everything will be in place,” Davide said in Cebuano.
The governor also said that rumors that detained suspected drug lord Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro may be “rescued” by his cohorts also brought about the need for security augmentation as the province did not want to take any chances.
“That’s why we really ask for police assistance. And right now in the isolation rooms diha duna gyud police nagtotok (police are closely watching),” Davide added.