Jail Chief Superintendent Efren Nemeno, Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Central Visayas (BJMP-7) chief, inspects the Cebu City Jail male dormitory on February 26, 2020. Three days later, seven jail facilities in the region were declared drug-cleared jails. | Photo grabbed from BJMP Region VII Facebook page
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The relentless greyhound operations or surprise inspections of jails in Central Visayas will continue to especially maintain the status of nine drug-cleared jails in the region, said Jail Chief Inspector Mary Jane Enopia, chief community relation services officer of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Central Visayas (BJMP-7).
In an interview with CDN Digital, Enopia said that the additional cleared facilities imply that their organization had been working hard to comply with President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive on the war against illegal drugs.
Jails and illegal drugs
Enopia said that despite the allegations that the source of illegal drugs was coming from the jail facilities, they had not encountered bulks of illegal drugs during the conduct of their surprise inspections.
She said that they could not confirm if these allegations are true because of that fact.
But she said that they were not also discounting the possibility of illegal drugs being sneaked into jails.
“We are not discounting the possibility, but we are also not confirming the issue. But we continue to conduct relentless greyhound operations to show the public that we are doing our job,” said Enopia.
Read more: In Photos: Scenes from greyhound operation at Cebu City Jail
Drug-cleared jails
She assured the public that they would continue to work harder to maintain and hold unto the acquired drug-cleared certificates of these seven jails.
These are the Medellin District Jail Female Dormitory; Dumaguete City District Jail Female Dormitory; Bantayan District Jail; Tanjay District Jail; Mabinay Municipality Jail; Ubay District Jail and Carmen District Jail.
She also said that two other jails that were declared drug-cleared facilities were the Medellin District Jail Male Dormitory and the Carcar City Jail.
Enopia said that Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) and the Regional Oversight Committee declared these BJMP-7 facilities as drug-free/cleared on February 29.
She said that they would work harder to maintain these drug-free/cleared status of the jails.
The new drug-cleared jails have brought the number of jails cleared of drugs to 21 out of the 40 jails under the BJMP-7./dbs