BJMP chief asked to provide more guards at Cebu City Jail

Councilor Dave Tumulak (standing) confers with Councilors Jocelyn Pesquera and Raymond Garcia during the discussion for the resolution seeking more jail guards for the Cebu City Jail. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

THE Cebu City Council is asking the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology Director Serafin Barreto to provide more jail officers and support staff to the Cebu City Jail so that they can better secure the inmates at the facility.

Cebu City Jail Warden Arnel Peralta welcomed the city’s move.

“It (additional personnel) is very necessary. They are very important because first of all, we are getting more and more visitors. Per visiting day, we get a minimum of 1,000 visitors,” he said.

Visiting days inside the city jail is every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.

The Cebu City Jail currently houses 4,391 inmates. But there are only 133 jail guards assigned in the area which is divided into three shifts per day.
Peralta said the ideal number of jail guards should be at least 500 so that they will have a ratio of one jail guard per seven inmates.

Councilor Dave Tumulak, who is the deputy mayor on police matters and who sponsored the resolution, said that aside from implementing regulations like disallowing the entry of contraband, cell phones and improvised weapons inside the jail, more personnel are needed to ensure the safe and efficient implementation of programs like this.

“The problem of overcrowding at the Cebu City Jail has continued to hound even threatened the health of the inmates,” read the resolution.

During an Oplan Galugad last week, officials confiscated several contraband like lighters, cell phones, improvised weapons, weighing scale, needles, appliances, drug paraphernalia and nubain inside the city jail.

It was also during that operation when Tumulak highlighted the need for additional personnel in the city jail.

At the same time, Warden Peralta assured that they will continue to investigate their own personnel in order to catch jail guards that are in connivance with inmates and their visitors in smuggling prohibited items inside the facility.

In fact, he said at least eight jail guards have already been relieved and transferred to other facilities since Peralta assumed as warden last March.
They were found to be involved in allowing items like cigarettes and alcoholic drinks inside the city jail.