New warden to ask Mayor to probe jail

The new warden of the controversy-prone Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) will request Mayor Tomas Osmeña to assign a team from city hall to look into anomalies in the city jail.

CInsp. Efren Nemeño took over as warden last Wednesday afternoon from CInsp. Teofilo Labating Jr., who has been transferred to the regional office of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). This change came a few days after agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), two jail guards collecting money from visitors of inmates.

Nemeño said that he is not yet implementing any revamp inside the jail to allow him time to carefully assess the situation in his new command. He was warden of the Lapu-Lapu City Jail before this assignment at the BBRC.

He however assured that the practice of collecting "taxes" from visitors will be totally abolished since this is not allowed in the first place.

Nemeño also said that he would pay a courtesy call on Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña next week to air his request for the mayor to form a committee composed of his trusted men to look into the anomalies inside the jail.

The newly-installed warden, who is a graduate of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) in 1994, said that he cannot change the perception of the mayor about the BJMP immediately, but hopes his proposal will get a positive response.

Osmeña has been a very staunch critic of the BJMP for the many lapses and controversies that have plagued the BBRC.

One major problem at BBRC that Nemeño has pointed out is the lack of personnel.

A total of 92 personnel have been assigned to the BBRC, but 10 of them have not been reporting for work and are considered to be Absent Without Official Leave (AWOL).

There are 2,498 inmates in the jail and Nemeño hopes he can get 30 to 40 more personnel from BJMP to boost the force detailed at the BBRC.

Meanwhile, Mayor Osmeña said that there would likely be no transfer of inmates to the city jail facility in barangay Kalunasan as long as DILG Undersecretary Marius Corpus continues to sit as head of the BJMP.

Osmeña considers it very risky to transfer the inmates to the new facility if the jail will be ran by the BJMP. He wants to city to manage the facility.

"What kind of government are we if we're giving them assignment on tong collection? The problem is up there," Osmeña said. The mayor likened the current BBRC management to a rotten apple who will remain rotten even if transferred to another place.

Osmeña is promising safety at the new city jail and it could not be achieved if the jail will be ran by the people from BJMP. He said he does not like the idea of jail guards from BJMP "squatting" at the new facility.

"I'm very sensitive about transparency," Osmeña said.

Nemeño said that he will look deeper into the anomalies in the BBRC, but pointed out that the previous wardens might have not known about the illegal activities. He explained that the jail guards might have agreed to do such on their own.

The new warden has spent more than two years with the BJMP spending most of it in his previous post where he served for a year and eight months in Lapu-Lapu City. - Joeberth M. Ocao and Norvie S. Misa, correspondent