THERE is still hope for the personnel of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) to get their P10,000 midyear bonus withheld by Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III last Sunday after he found their performance for the first half of 2017 unsatisfactory.
Emerging from a 30-minute closed-door meeting at CPDRC yesterday, Davide told reporters that while he remained disappointed with the continued entry of contraband items into the provincial jail, he was giving the prison’s 133 employees a chance to improve.
“I told them: improve yourself… akong tuyo dinha (my intention there) is to teach them a lesson. They have to step up their performance,” said Davide assuring that if he sees improvement in the coming months, CPDRC employees may have their bonuses before the end of 2017.
In a speech during Cebu’s 448th Charter Day celebration at the Provincial Capitol Social Hall last Sunday, Davide expressed dismay over the “poor performance” of CPDRC jail guards based on results of a recent greyhound operation led by the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) and Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC).
The raids yielded several contraband items including 23 grams of shabu worth P236,000, P18,800 believed to be proceeds from illegal gambling operations, drug paraphernalia, and at least 40 electronic gadgets.
While Davide originally planned to hold the midyear bonus of only 63 jail guards tasked to monitor the nearly 3,000 inmates at CPDRC, Davide later agreed to acting jail warden Roberto Legaspi’s recommendation to apply the sanction to the jail’s administrative staff as well.
“They work here as a team… I hope they understood that in line with the several greyhound operations, we were still not able to prevent contraband from entering – everyone should be accountable,” Legaspi said.
Report to the governor
Davide encouraged jail employees to report to his office any information on illegal activities and transactions conducted in CPDRC such as jail employees conniving with detainees in order to expedite an ongoing probe into CPDRC anomalies.
“We’re giving them until Friday to provide us this kind of information. Report to me if they themselves are involved in anything unlawful or if they know someone who is doing it,” Davide said.
The governor assured that all information will be treated with utmost confidentiality.
Jail employees’ concern
Davide said among the concerns raised by CPDRC employees during his dialogue with them were the “strict” rules set by the acting warden and police assigned at the jail premises.
“Nabag-ohan guro sila sa pamaagi sa bag-ong warden (Maybe they’re just not used to the policies of the new warden), and with the different policies set by the PPSC,” the governor said.
A female jail officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity told Cebu Daily News that they had difficulty coordinating with PPSC due to differences in their “management styles.”
For his part, Legaspi was not inclined to pull out the 16 PPSC members assigned at the jail just to appease the complaints of jail employees.
“As long as I’m here, the PPSC is here,” Legaspi said.
The PPSC members began to be stationed at the jail, Wednesday to help frisk jail visitors and and inspect goods being delivered to the inmates.