City accepts challenge to probe BBRC issues

Mayor Tomas Osmeña has considered the move of the new Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center warden requesting the City Hall to conduct a probe on the controversies hounding the city jail.

C/Insp. Efren Nemeño, who took over C/Insp. Teofilo Labating Jr., has requested Osmeña to assign a team to look into the anomalies at BBRC, following the entrapment of two female jail guards who collected money from visitors of inmates.

Osmeña earlier said he would not dip a finger into BBRC because he did not agree with the way the city jail is being managed by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. But with Nemeño's request, the mayor said he doesn't have any other choice, but to accept the challenge.

"BBRC is not even in my mind. Why would I plow a field if it's not worth it? Now it is my job to accept it," Osmeña said.

With BBRC opening its doors to the city government, the mayor said he does not have a choice but to test the idea of finding out why the city jail has been hounded with controversies. A major controversy that rocked BBRC was the discovery of a woman inside the cell of Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association leader Ruben Ecleo, Jr. who is facing charges for the death of his wife.

But the move of the new warden does not necessarily mean Osmeña has softened his heart towards the BJMP, saying the burden of proof is on the part of the bureau.

The other day, Osmeña told reporters there would likely be no transfer of inmates to the new city jail facility in barangay Kalunasan as long as Department of the Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Marius Corpus continues to sit as head of the BJMP.

The mayor said transferring the inmates to the new facility under the same management of BJMP is a "great risk", adding, the problem at BBRC is a system that seems to start from the upper ranks. He likened the current BBRC management to a rotten apple that will remain rotten even if transferred to another place.

The city government has been the prime mover of the construction of the facility alongside financial aid from the national government. Parallel to this, the mayor also wants the city government to manage the facility when the same will be completely operational.

Nemeño had said he will look deeper in the anomalies but pointed out that the previous wardens might not have known about the illegal activities and that the guards might have agreed to do the collection on their own. - Joeberth M. Ocao