DOJ hits Cebu jail for bringing out inmate

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Mandaue City court to order two provincial jail officials to explain why they took an inmate to a hospital without the court’s approval.

Assistant State Prosecutor Juan Pedro Navera said Cebu province consultant Marco Toral and acting warden Romeo Manansala of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center violated court procedures and showed disrespect to the court when they allowed inmate Bienvinido Noel to seek medical services last October.

The Cebu provincial government  was also asked to explain “in writing” the legal bases for Toral’s appointment as consultant on jail matters as well as his functions, duties, and responsibilities at the CPDRC.

“For the education of both Toral and Manansala, the movement and transfer of inmates should always be only upon specific order of the honorable court. By taking Noel out of CPDRC without a corresponding court order, they clearly showed their utter contempt to this court,” said Navera who is based in Manila.

Toral  said he has not yet received an order from Judge Ferdinand Rafanan of the Regional Trial Court Branch 55 in Mandaue City.

“But I’m ready to answer and explain,” he told CDN over the phone.

The case drew controversy when the 52-year-old inmate, who is facing murder charges, was brought to a private hospital by the consultant, and registered under another name.

Toral explained  that he brought the inmate  to the Cebu Doctors’ Hospital last Oct. 18 and 19 “for humanitarian reasons”, after Noel cracked his leg bone during a basketball game in the  jail.

Toral said he was woken from sleep to deal with the medical emergency.
“I knew how it feels to have a cracked bone so I made a decision,” Toral said. He   escorted Noel to  a  private hospital, which he said is  the nearest hospital  from the CPDRC.

“I would have wanted to bring him to (Vicente) Sotto (Memorial Medical Center), a government hospital,  but I was afraid that he won’t be immediately attended to there,” he said.

Noel underwent a bone X-ray last Oct. 18 before  being brought back to the jail. They returned to the hospital the next  day to have his  foot wrapped in a cast.