A photo of prisoners squatting butt naked on the ground during an Operation Greyhound launched by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) that went viral on social media sparked not just a flood of adverse comments but highlighted the difficulty of securing a prison from illegal drug syndicates.
Though the operation yielded a lower yield of drugs and smaller proceeds at “only” half a million pesos, the fact is that illegal drugs continue to proliferate and circulate within the dank, dingy walls of prison and almost everyone, from the jail guards to the inmates, are profiting nicely from it.
Suspected drug lord Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro was found to have not just one or two but three cell phones in his possession even when he was supposed to be isolated and guarded by security cameras from the rest of the prison population on account of the threats against his life by drug syndicates wishing to silence him to death.
How he got three cell phones — all of which were encrypted with passwords — in his possession, only the guards and former jail warden Dr. Gil Macato could answer.
Macato might not even choose to reply since Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III was unable to contact him after the results of the Operation Greyhound, which brings us back to that photo of naked male prisoners being ordered to squat while the raid was ongoing.
Truth be told, we seriously doubt if the Capitol or even any local government or the national government can achieve a permanent “zero drugs” rate inside their prisons for good, let alone on a daily basis, given not only their budget constraints but also the seeming inability of jail guards to be honest and committed to doing their jobs in the face of millions of pesos’ worth of bribes offered by jailed drug suspects.
For now, the Capitol may wish, if they can afford to do so, to install full-body X-ray scanners just like those used in airports in the US and in developed countries in Europe and Asia.
That would do away with having PDEA personnel and jail guards order a strip search on all prisoners to see if they have drugs in their person.
We have learned of stories of drug mules swallowing sachets of drugs and allowing themselves to be operated on so the drugs can be obtained from them, hence the full body X-ray scanners and the extremely painful and humiliating body cavity searches.
We wonder if the human rights groups and those who complained and questioned about the necessity of strip searches even bothered to recognize this reality.
For now, PDEA personnel and the Capitol should employ every means necessary within the ambit of the law to remove any trace of illegal drug activity within the CPDRC.
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