CEBU, Philippines - The Association of Barangay Councils in Cebu City has requested city jail warden Ma. Victoria Jimenez to provide the barangay officials a list of prisoners that were already released from jail.
ABC president Michael Ralota, who sits as ex-officio member of the city council, said they want an updated list every month for the barangays to be able to monitor and help the ex-convicts in finding livelihood to prevent them from committing crimes again.
According to Ralota, the barangay officials have observed that most ex-convicts are forced to commit crimes again because of the difficulty in finding jobs.
“Mao kana nga kami sa barangay motabang nila pagtudlo og mga livelihood sama sa pagpanupi, panahi ug uban pa nga panginabuhian sa tinarong nga paagi,” Ralota said.
He explained that ex-convicts are confronted with social, economic and even personal challenges in their efforts to be re-integrated in the mainstream society.
Ralota said these people need the support of the barangay officials and the civil society to be able to completely live a new life.
“Thus necessitating a complimentary barangay level mechanism that will help them find suitable vocational or mental jobs based on their skills and abilities,” he added.
A resolution sponsored by Ralota was approved by the city council yesterday asking the jail warden to give them the names of inmates that were already released.
He is afraid that if the government would fail to provide assistance to these newly-released prisoners and ex-convicts they might resort back to their old criminal ways of living because the society itself does not welcome them anymore.
Meanwhile, Ralota asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to put up an NBI Renewal Kiosk consisting of an automated machine processing unit in the City Hall for the convenient and accessible issuance of NBI clearance.
Ralota learned that several applicants for NBI clearance renewal found it difficult for them to renew in the NBI office because it is very congested.
The NBI is currently using the manual process in the processing of clearance application because they have changed their system. — (FREEMAN)