With their intensified campaign against criminality, the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) claimed that the detention cells of the different police stations in the city are now getting congested.
This was because of the police operations that they conducted wherein they arrested not less than 50 individuals in every operation, according to City Intelligence Branch (CIB) head Supt. Ryan Devaras.
“Problem karon sa CCPO medyo congested na ang prisohan. But we cannot stop our operations since i-preserve nato ang peace and order sa city (Our problem now in CCPO is that the detention cells are getting congested. But we cannot stop our operations because we need to preserve the peace and order in the city),” Devaras said.
Last Friday, at least 106 people, mostly engaged in illegal gambling, were rounded up by CCPO in a “one time, big time” operation that lasted for two hours. All 11 police stations in city participated in the operation dubbed as “Oplan Pokemon.”
Fifteen of those arrested have pending warrants of arrest for robbery and illegal drug activities, while 10 were caught using illegal drugs, said Devaras.
Three were also arrested for illegal possession of firearms.
San Nicolas Police Station chief Senior Insp. Keith Andaya said one of the reasons for cell congestion is that sometimes police have to wait for three days, especially during weekends, before bringing the suspect to the prosecutor’s office for issuance of commitment order to city jail.
“If weekdays madakpan amo dayon na file-an og kaso. The only thing pud sa prosecutor’s office naa sad silay congestion in handling the case. It would take them three days before ma-issuehan og commitment sa city jail ang usa ka suspect (If they are arrested during weekdays, we immediately file a case. The only thing in the prosecutor’s office is that they also have congestion in handling cases. It would take them three days to issue a commitment order),” Andaya said.
However, Andaya said jail congestion at San Nicolas Police Station is still manageable.