LEGASPI
STATE auditors will be invited by the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) to advise them on what to do with the P263,000 in cash found in a vault during last Friday’s Greyhound operation at the jail.
“It will be better if we can ask for some guidelines from COA (Commission on Audit) on how to handle it,” Acting Provincial Warden Roberto Legaspi told reporters in yesterday’s press conference.
The CPDRC, together with the Provincial Public Safety Company (PPSC) and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA-7) conducted the first of this year’s Greyhound operations last Friday and uncovered both cash and contraband.
They discovered a vault at the canteen that contained the cash.
Legaspi previously mentioned that detainees claimed that the vault was used to deposit the money earned from the cooperative they run inside the jail facility.
“We talked to the treasurer of their coop about our plans (to ask help from COA). But we advised them to instead deposit the money in a legitimate coop outside the jail),” he said.
Legaspi said the inmates still managed to have control of the money even if their privileges were suspended in May last year.
Restrictions were imposed amid reports of jail officers being bribed to smuggle contraband inside the facility.
CPDRC also suspended the canteen’s operations when a Greyhound operation in August last year yielded P230,000 worth of shabu.
The drugs were stashed discreetly in the canteen’s office.
CPDRC rules classifies money as contraband even if it came from the cooperative’s earnings, Legaspi said.
“The vault is in the warden’s office. To my understanding, the canteen is still closed,” Legaspi said.
He said even with last Friday’s raid yielding a lower volume of contraband like drugs and money, there will be no letup in Greyhound operations.
“I’m going to give more access to the PDEA and the PPSC … we really need to step up our security,” Legaspi said.
He said he may suggest to Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III to suspend the visitation rights of inmates due to the incident.