ACTING Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said he will write a letter to Interior Secretary Mar Roxas telling him about the dismal living conditions of inmates in the Cebu City Jail.
Labella said the prisoners’ meals and health are the responsibility of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) through the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP).
A missionary group, the Missionaries of Hope, asked the City Council on Wednesday to address conditions of the inmates who stay in overcrowded cells with no doctor to attend to them, many of whom are sick.
Labella said he would ask the City Council to push on with their plan to allocate an additional P10 to the inmates’ daily meal budget of P50 through the next supplemental budget.
Labella also spoke with City Health officer Daisy Villa to assign a doctor to visit the jail at least once a week and provide free medical check up.
Jail Warden Johnson Calub said 35 inmates were diagnosed with tuberculosis while 39 others are confined in the jail’s psychiatric cell.
Labella said the city jail has eight nurses under its plantilla who should attend to the inmates health.He said the BJMP should also hire a doctor for emergency situations.
The council asked the Department of Health (DOH) to provide psychiatric care.
The jail facility’s more than 2,000 detainees include non-city residents who were detained for crimes they are accused of committing elsewhere.
Detainees also include two suspected Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) members who were accused of killing US soldiers in Sulu.
“Pero wala mag kuwang ang city sa pagtabang nila (But the city didn’t lack in providing for them),” Labella said.
Labella said Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama worked to have the new city jail built. The facility in barangay Kalunasan has a rated capacity of 1,700 inmates, bigger than the detention facility near the Asia Town IT Park.
The city government also extends P2,000 monthly allowance to BJMP personnel assigned at the city jail.
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