Surprise jail inspections yield appliances, weapons, TV sets

An officer of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) inventories the drug materials seized from the jail. (CDN PHOTO APPLE MAE TA-AS)

At 5 a.m. yesterday, 2,717 detainees were ushered out of their prison cells for a surprise inspection, dubbed “Operation Greyhound,” inside the male dormitory of the Cebu City Jail in Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.

But the inspection yielded nothing like the Greyhound operations in the New Bilibid Prison in Muntinlupa City.

There were no air-conditioned rooms nor hotel-like accommodations.

What the police and drug enforcement agents got were several old model TV sets, some drug paraphernalia, improvised bladed weapons and five cell phones.

The raid was meant to flush out illegal drugs believed to have proliferated inside the jail but not a single pack of illegal drugs was seized.

A pack of powder thought to be an illegal drug was seized by raiding police, but it turned out to be ground ginger used to heal cough and colds.

The Greyhound operations were simultaneously carried out in the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP)-operated jails in the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu, but it also yielded few contraband.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama was dissatisfied with the result of the surprise inspection after he learned that no illegal drugs were seized at Cebu City Jail.

While thankful that the BJMP-7, headed by Chief Supt. Allan Iral, initiated Operation Greyhound, Rama believed that another surprise inspection is needed.

He said he was positive that illegal drugs were still hidden somewhere inside the jail, not necessarily in the prisoners’ dormitories.

The mayor said the city government initiated surprise inspections in the city jail in the past and they found that a number of inmates were using drugs.

“We should be very strict in maintaining zero drug tolerance inside jails. What’s the point of putting them in jail when they can still be doing illegal deeds behind bars?” Mayor Rama said.

Eugene Elizalde, chairman of the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC), said he would meet today with Supt. Johnson Calub, BJMP head in Cebu City, to discuss the city government’s zero drug tolerance policy in the jail.

He said one of the issues to be resolved would be how to tighten the inspection system to ensure that visitors would not sneak drugs into the city jail.

Calub said the confiscated appliances like TV sets were donated by some religious groups.

“We only allow appliances which can be used by everyone so they won’t be bored inside their cells,” he said.

An officer of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) examines the old TV sets confiscated from the cells of make detainees at the Cebu City Jail. (CDN PHOTO APPLE MAE TA-AS)

Iral said the surprise inspection came in the wake of the January 26 incident in which one of the visitors was caught bringing 98 grams of illegal drugs inside the premises.

He said the Cebu City Jail receives 700 visitors on regular days and 1,000 to 1,500 visitors on special occasions.

Following the surprise inspections, Iral told reporters they would now consider installing metal scanners in three jail facilities to deter visitors from bringing contraband inside the jail, particularly drugs.

He said they also planned to get signal jammers to discourage the smuggling of cell phone units into the jails that might be used by drug offenders to contact their suppliers and continue their illegal drug trade even if they are in jail.

Supt. Johnson Calub, Cebu City Jail warden, said the surprise raid was important since 80 percent of the male detainees were drug offenders.

Calub said while they did not find any illegal drug, the fewer contraband items the raid had yielded was a result of the strict implementation of rules inside the jail.

In Lapu-Lapu City, Jail Warden Senior Insp. Dennis Aliño also attributed to strict inspection the low yield of prohibited items that included several nails, a SIM card, syringe, a toy gun and a small empty plastic sachet believed to have contained shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride).

“We are implementing very tight inspection on jail visitors. (That was) maybe the reason (why) illegal drugs and other prohibited items could hardly be found inside,” Aliño said.

At the Mandaue City Jail, authorities also only found sharp-pointed sticks, a cell phone charger and a phone, USB, tin foils as drug paraphernalia and a stick of suspected marijuana, Mandaue City Jail Warden Chief Insp. Gil Inopia said.