Legal aid sought for city jail inmates

crowded. Inmates of male ward of the Cebu City Jail sing the Balo Balani sa Gugma in reverence of the Señor Sto. Niño in this file photo. (CDN FILE PHOTO)

Cebu City’s Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC) will ask lawyers groups as well as law schools to provide free legal assistance to detainees of the Cebu City Jail whose cases are bailable and those whose maximum penalty qualifies for probation.

Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, PCAC presiding officer, said the paralegal intervention is meant to decongest the BBRC which is already bursting at the seams.

The male ward of the jail facility, which was built for  1,080persons, has more than 2,000 detainees.

In yesterday’s PCAC meeting, the vice mayor said they will  ask the Public Attorney’s Office, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Cebu City Chapter, and deans of law schools in the city to help them provide paralegal assistance to the prisoners.

“We hope that they can help us in assessing the cases of these prisoners who are mostly indigents and can’t afford to pay for (the services of) lawyers. It would give chance to prisoners to be able to go back to mainstream society and at the same time, decongest the facility,” Labella said.

Cebu City Jail Warden Johnson Calub reported that around 200 prisoners are accused of crimes whose maximum penalty qualify for probation. Crimes whose maximum penalty is up to six years, generally qualify for probation. Convicts who are on probation serve their prison penalties outside of prison, subject to conditions set by the Parole and Probation Office.

Calub added that 1,578 prisoners are accused of crimes that are bailable. Bail is a right of the accused to remain free after paying the court a bail bond which serves as a guarantee that they would stand trial. If one is accused of a heinous crime and when evidence of guilt is strong, bail is not allowed by the court.

If the PCAC formula is effective, the number of BBRC detainees would be reduced to a little over 500 persons. Calub said only 538 prisoners are accused of non-bailable crimes with over a hundred already convicted and awaiting transfer to the national penitentiary.

Labella said they will also be urging the Department of Justice to facilitate the transfer of convicted prisoners to the national penitentiary.

The council hopes that providing paralegal assistance to the prisoners will hasten their respective cases and eventually lead to the decongestion of the facility.