The 32-year-old Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center might soon be renamed simply as the Cebu City Jail.
Councilor Procopio Fernandez, proponent of the change of the facility's name, did not give many explanation and reason but the council's committee on laws, headed by councilor Edgardo Labella, saw no cause to obstruct it at all.
Labella said the legislature of highly-urbanized cities have the power to change the names of barangays, roads, public schools and city-owned buildings in consultation with the Philippine Historical Commission. Fernandez, chairman of the committee on police, fire and penology, found support to his proposal from jail guards themselves.
The guards said the word "rehabilitation" from BBRC is a misnomer because the center had not provided proper rehabilitation projects for the inmates since.
BBRC was constructed, from city funds, on December 28, 1975 during the term of city mayor, Eulogio Borres, to house 250 inmates.
There are however more than 1,000 prisoners now languishing in the BBRC, making it a congested facility. The other 1,000 inmates were earlier transferred to a newly-built jail in barangay Kalunasan.
With the Labella committee already endorsing for approval, the Fernandez proposal would then be submitted to a public hearing soon. - Rene U. Borromeo/RAE