Transfer inmates aged 18 and over

CEBU, Philippines - The Police Coordinating and Advisory Council has advised the Warden of Cebu City Operation Second Chance to stick to the mandate or the operation manual of the facility with regards to dealing with those who have reached legal age but are still staying at the center.

PCAC Presiding Officer Eugene Elizalde said they found out that of the 173 offenders housed at the facility, 52 of them have already turned 18 years old.

Elizalde said that if these offenders are due for transfer to more appropriate detention centers according to the rules, he advised Senior Insp. Elsie Eireen Alcomendras to follow them.

Alcomendras appeared before PCAC during the latter’s regular meeting yesterday.

He submitted a report on the incident along with the inventory of youth offenders housed at the facility.

Elizalde said that he asked for the inventory in aid of their investigation.

“Based on the inventory, we observed that the cases involving these kids are crimes we thought that only adults are capable of. Their cases are murder, homicide, rape. These kids will not really appear as cute as the 15-year-old child we imagine,” Elizalde said.

He said though that this is still not a ground to treat these children unreasonably, if the claims of the children regarding maltreatment are true.

Last March 12 the children housed in Operation Second Chance held hostage one of their guards allegedly because the eight jail guards are maltreating them.

Elizalde said that Alcomendras told them the detained adults might have influenced the others to commit the hostage taking.

One of the children’s demands was to cancel the transfer of their fellow inmates who have already turned 18.

“Those 52 could have stirred up the emotion of the children. This is something to look into,” Elizalde said.

Operation Second Chance has 173 occupants, five of which are female. Of the total number 52 are now 18 years old and the rest are 17 years old and below.

Elizalde said he personally does not agree with another request of the children to replace the iron bars of the center with jalousies.

“All of these will be discussed by the management board tomorrow (March 21). They are the proper authority to decide on these matters. What we are doing is just a parallel investigation as ordered by the mayor,” Elizalde said. –(FREEMAN)