To anyone unfamiliar with Steve Go’s personal history, his death at the hands of a fellow inmate at the Mandaue City Jail may come as both a shock—okay mild surprise considering how violence isn’t foreign to jails—and a disturbing indication on the quality of security inside Cebu’s detention facilities.
Then the facts start creeping in and by the time Go’s personal history is taken into full account not a few will wonder why he lasted so long without anyone taking him down even inside the four walls of prison.
Go had been transferred several times for his arrogant, belligerent behavior and that’s not even taking into consideration his reputation as a drug lord with some connections as evidenced by the contraband that he continually receives including that gun his fellow inmate wrested from and shot him with at past 11 am last Tuesday.
His assailant, Crescenciano Erana, surrendered the firearm to police authorities not long after the incident and he admitted to shooting Go after he allegedly provoked and threatened to shoot him inside their shared cell.
While Go’s family cried for justice, we could hazard a guess that public support and sympathy will eventually go to Erana who doesn’t have anything to lose other than his life when Go allegedly threatened to shoot him with a firearm that Go received courtesy of some jail guard in exchange for money.
That the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) inhibited itself for now from investigating the incident showed just how little public sentiment there is for an inquiry into the shooting other than to verify whether or not Erana’s shooting was premeditated or not.
That’s what the Go family is counting on as they cried for an impartial investigation into his death. That’s the only thing they can count on either from the CHR or other government agency because frankly, aside from some hardcore liberal rights advocates, they can expect little to zero sympathy from a public that still demands tough action and even death for drug lords.
That said, there is still the matter of constricting the flow of contraband items to Metro Cebu jails which is easier said than done owing to lax, even poor security and the congestion of inmates that had reduced them into a subhuman existence fit for stray animals.
Local governments should stop shipping their inmates to the province for detention and should allocate budgets for their own detention facilities to house their criminal suspects and wrongdoers. It may not stop another murder in the cell, but it can reduce the possibility of a similar one.