BJMP-7 spox ‘discourages’ sending of packages to Cebu City Jail

Relatives of Cebu City Jail inmates gathered at the Fuente Osmeña Rotunda on Tuesday morning, April 21, 2020, to drop off cash, hygiene products, toiletries, maintenance medicine and supplements for their loved ones who are now detained at the facility. | Photo courtesy of Chito Aragon

CEBU CITY, Philippines —An official of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology in Central Visayas (BJMP-7) is asking family members of inmates now detained at the Cebu City Jail to refrain from sending packages to the jail facility following the confirmation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the penitentiary.

Jail Senior Inspector Jay Ylanan, BJMP-7 Spokesperson, in a virtual news conference on Tuesday, April 21, 2020, said he would recommend that the sending of items from the inmates’ relatives be lessened to deter the spread of the virus.

CCJ-Male Dormitory has already reported a total of four cases of COVID-19 involving two inmates and two jail officers as of this writing.

Read: BJMP-7 confirms 1 jail officer infected with COVID-19

Because visiting privileges have been suspended since March due to COVID-19, relatives of the inmates have made it a practice to send their packages which contain hygiene products, toiletries, maintenance medicine and supplements for the detainees through “dunol” or handover in designated drop off points.

They may also send cash of up to P5,000 for each detainee every week through banking or mobile cash transfer schemes.

“Ako man gud unta nga suggestion dapat nga i-lessen gyud na kay diha man usahay sa mga pag-dunol nga wa ta kahibaw kay mga asymptomatic,” Ylanan said.

(I would like to do away with this practice because sometimes it is during the handover of packages that detainees get COVID-19 because we do not know if the one sending the package is infected but is asymptomatic.)

Ylanan, however, assured that they are implementing stringent measures to ensure that the items being brought into the jail facility from the designated “dunol” drop off points have already been disinfected.

BJMP has designated the Fuente Osmeña Rotunda as the lone “dunol” drop off point for packages that are intended for Cebu City Jail Male Dormitory inmates starting on Thursday,  April 23, 2020.

On Tuesday morning, the inmates’ relatives already started to gather at the rotunda bringing packs of hygiene items, vitamins, medicines, and cash that they wish to send to the detainees.

In an announcement posted on the BJMP Cebu City Jail Male Dorm Facebook page, jail administrators said they decided to already centralize the drop off of the packages for the inmates in Fuente Osmeña beginning on Thursday instead of directly bringing these to the penitentiary in Barangay Kalunasan.

“For OPRRA, Kalunasan and Guadalupe residents, we will still accept the dropped off items at the jail but starting April 23, 2020, all dunol drop-offs will already be in Fuente Osmeña,” the BJMP advisory said in Cebuano.

“Daghan man mamakak nga residente sila aning [tulo ka barangay] para maka likay sa linya sa Fuente Osmeña. So para patas tanan, Fuente ra ang drop off site starting Thursday, April 23, 2020,” the jail administrators explained.

(We discovered that some family members would claim that they come from the three barangays to they would already skip travels and the long queues at Fuente Osmeña. In order to be fair, all packages will already be received at the Fuente Osmeña drop off point starting on Thursday, April 23, 2020.)