Some of the inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) are registered voters of Cebu City. (CDN FILE PHOTO)
As the local campaign period kicks off on March 26, Cebu City’s South District candidates, including the city’s two mayoral bets, are expected to woo 1,200 registered voters who are currently detained at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC).
Although it is the Cebu Province that runs CPDRC, Romeo Manansala, acting jail warden of CPDRC, said inmates were registered as Cebu City voters and not as provincial voters since the jail is located in Barangay Kalunasan, which is part of the southern district of Cebu City.
There are 2,835 inmates in CPDRC. The rest of the inmates who were not registered are either convicted detainees, including those with appeal in progress, or those who were brought into the jail after the off-site registrations held last year.
He told reporters yesterday that he has already heard from the camps of both Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama of Team Rama, and his opponent, former Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña of Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan.
“We are expecting them to come to CPDRC to campaign in the following weeks,” said Manansala.
Manansala added that congressional candidates have also made requests to campaign at the detention center.
Vice presidential candidate Antonio Trillanes’s camp also expressed interest in visiting CPDRC as part of his campaign early this year.
However, it did not push through during Trillanes’s Cebu trip last week.
Manansala shared that he was open to these requests so that the candidates for public positions will be exposed early on to the over-congestion problem in the jail.
“The jail capacity is only 1,600, but we already have twice the number of inmates than the jail can handle. Maayo ra karon kay ting-bugnaw paman ang kadlawn, pero kung mo ting-init na, maghinay-hinay na og balik ang mga sakit sa mga inmates,” Manansala shared.
(It is still okay now since it’s still cold during dawn, but when the summer season starts, different illnesses afflict inmates.)
Since Cebu City provides the jail with basic services, tents for events and police support, Manansala added that Cebu City candidates should also be exposed to these problems.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) normally sends commissioners from the city instead of the province to hold off-site registration for the inmates because of the location of the jail.
The first off-site registration held at CPDRC was in 2012 under then-Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who designed the system to allow jail inmates to register and vote for the 2013 elections.
In 2012, 1,400 inmates were registered voters.
Manansala said that although the same system will be used for the 2016 elections, the commissioners were in a rush and despite the two off-site voters registrations held for the upcoming elections, the registration turnout was still lower.
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