Ruiz: Prisoner held keys to CPDRC jail cells

RUIZ

BELIEVE it or not, one of the inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) was in possession of the keys that open the jail’s detention cells.

Yogi Filemon Ruiz, director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) was dumbfounded when he personally saw the inmate holding the keys when the agents raided the provincial jail last Tuesday dawn.

“I was surprised. The inmate was behind bars and yet he kept the keys,” he said.

Ruiz said the surprise jail inspection, including how one of the inmates kept the keys, was videotaped.

He said he will include the incident in a post-operation report which he will submit to Cebu Gov. Davide Hilario Davide III.

Ruiz did not reveal the name of the inmate. He also requested to show the videos to the governor before allowing the media to see it.

PDEA-7 agents raided the CPDRC at around 1 p.m. on Tuesday and seized 76 cellular phones; 19 medium-sized packs of shabu worth P30,000; a plastic containing marijuana leaves; assorted drug paraphernalia that include lighters, rolled tin foils, scissors and a digital weighing scale; cash amounting to P92,000; bladed weapons; three DVD players; a tablet; laptop; passbook with a deposit of more than P300,000 and bank transaction receipts.

Before that, detainees were ordered to undress and were herded to the facility’s open air quadrangle, as the agents with the help of police operatives and members of the Armed Forces Central Command searched the belongings and rooms of the inmates one by one.

Of the cellular phones seized, three were found at the detention cell occupied by ten inmates that included drug lord Alvaro “Barok” Alvaro, one of the top drug personalities in Cebu. A pack of shabu was also found in the same cell.

A bank passbook recovered from an inmate associated with Barok likewise showed a deposit of P300,000 and withdrawal of P500,000, all on the same day.

The discovery the contraband prompted Davide to relieve the acting jail warden Dr. Gil Macato from his post and have him replaced by Roberto Legaspi, the head of the Capitol’s Civil Security Unit (CSU).

Legaspi, upon his assumption yesterday, promptly ordered the suspension of the conjugal visits at the jail pending the deployment of a 20-man team from the Provincial Public Security Company (PPSC) from the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) to augment the security in the area.

“The reason why we suspended the conjugal visits is just to make sure nothing comes in during the brief period that the PPSC from CPPO gets deployed here,” he said.