Police need deeper coordination with BJMP to solve drug problem

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Mandaue City police hope to have stronger coordination with their counterparts in the  Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) on the exchange of information about persons visiting detained drug personalities.

Police Colonel Jonathan Abella, chief of the MCPO told CDN Digital that one of the reasons why they struggle in cutting the ties between detained suppliers of illegal drugs and their distributors is the limited access they have when it comes to extending their investigation inside the BJMP.

According to Abella, their intelligence monitoring is limited because of their failure to have the BJMP provide them with the names of alleged drug suppliers who are inside penal facilities and tagged as such by drug suspects that were apprehended during buy-bust operations.

The bigger problem, however, Abella said,  lies in the verification of the information.

Abella said that they wanted to know from the BJMP the identity of the visitors of the detained drug lords since they are usually the ones tasked to relay information about drug transactions outside.

He said that most of the time, their monitoring ends after the suspects are transferred to the BJMP facility as it is no longer under their jurisdiction.

Abella believes that the communication between the supplier and the distributors happen during visitation hours.

Abella termed this as “communication blind” since all the possible information can easily be relayed during visits.

If only they can have the names of the visitors of the detained drug lords, Abella said it would be much easier for them to track down the illicit transactions outside. /rcg