There’s no surprise about last Monday’s so-called “Oplan Greyhound” done in the jails of the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu because it was only a matter of time before jail authorities launched one of these little operations.
These operations, which were intended to flush out suppliers of drugs inside jails, yielded only drug paraphernalia, assorted appliances like TV and the usual bladed weapons from inmates in the Cebu City Jail.
There was also no such luck in the jails of the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu which fuels suspicion that the drug peddlers in these jails—a lot of the inmates in the Cebu City Jail are said to be drug dealers—have laid low for a while, at least until they can know for sure that the heat is off them.
But rather than laying to rest any doubts about the drug dealing activities inside Metro Cebu’s jails, the absence or lack of any drugs uncovered has instead further intensified speculations that there are indeed some drug dealings going on inside these jails.
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama thinks so, as he expressed dissatisfaction about the results of the raids and wanted more intensive, random inspections to flush out these drug-dealing inmates.
“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.
While he has a point, we also wish that the mayor doesn’t neglect to order a similar intensified campaign on the streets in order to effect some significant arrests of big time dealers of the “Jaguar” variety.
Rama’s lackluster campaign against illegal drugs has been stained with the presence of a drug den near Cebu City Hall that was raided by operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) a year ago.
Whether he was embarrassed by it or not, the mayor seemed to indicate that he believed that some of the drug-trafficking activities center not on the streets but inside the Cebu City Jail. We hope that’s not the case.
The problem of drug-dealing inmates isn’t confined in Cebu City but in the cities of Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu as well.
When inmates can hide TV sets donated by religious groups inside their cells, there’s little doubt that they can smuggle in other more undesirable contraband as well, and it’s not just drugs.
Security cameras may not be enough when jail personnel are in cahoots with the inmates in transporting contraband to and from the jails. Jail compounds in all Metro Cebu cities are badly in need of upgrading, but until then, there should be no letup in the monitoring of drug activities inside these jails.