Male guards peep at female jail visitors?

CEBU, Philippines - Some unscrupulous male guards of the Cebu City Jail are reportedly taking advantage of the female visitors by peeping at them through a peep-hole on the wall of the searching room.

The alleged abuses have already reached Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama’s attention before he left for Israel last Friday. Rama has ordered security consultant Romeo Cordova to act on it.

Cordova immediately called the attention of jail warden Maria Victoria Jimenez to put a stop to the reported illegal activities of some of her guards but nothing has been done until now.

Visitors at the jail are required to strip in the designated searching area to ensure that no illegal items are brought inside the jail. Four searching rooms have been built in the main entrance, two of which are assigned for the male visitors while the other two are for the females.

“Ang plywood nga maoy gihimong division sa searching rooms sa mga lalaki ug babaye Sir maoy gilungagan ug adto ang mga jail guards nga lalaki magpundok aron mangli-li sa mga babaye nga i-search sa pikas kwarto,” an informer said.

Cordova said he told Jimenez about it during their meeting at the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council. The warden reportedly said that she could not believe that this is happening inside the facility.

“Luoy g’yud kaayo Sir ang mga babaye nga dalaw (visitors) nga walay kalibotan nga gipistahan diay siya pagtan-aw sa mga gwardya nga mapahimuslanon,” the informer said.

Despite the strict security measures in the city jail, however, smuggling of illegal drugs and other contrabands remain very rampant. In fact, in several occasions, jail officials have confiscated illegal drugs, weapons and cellphones inside the facility during surprise inspections.

The suspicions that drugs are smuggled inside the jail by female visitors prompted jail officials to require all visitors to take off their clothes including underwear before they are allowed to enter the facility.

But the security measures did not stop the illegal activities inside the jail, an informant said.

“Kon mao na nga duna gihapo’y mga binuang diha sulod sa prisohan dili gayud mabalik ang gipangayo nila nga rice allowance ug monthly incentive sa mga jail guards gikan sa City Hall,” Cordova said.

Rama earlier said he will not approve the request to give back the P200,000-worth of monthly rice allowance to the city jail inmates and the P1,000 monthly incentives to each of the jail guards until all illegal activities are addressed.

Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas R. Osmeña had stopped the granting of rice allowance to the city jail inmates during his stint as mayor because of reports that jail officials have pocketed the huge part of the food budget given to them by the national government. — (FREEMAN)