Capitol to pay for K-9 dogs for CPDRC

CEBU, Philippines -  The Cebu provincial government will help for the deployment of K-9 dogs at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center following the request of Warden Romeo Manansala.

Governor Hilario Davide III said they will coordinate with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency  and the Philippine National Police  and will pay the service fee for every K-9 dog sent to the jail facility.

Manansala said deploying police service dogs can tighten more the security and prevent the entry of contrabands inside CPDRC.

Earlier, a suspect caught in a buy-bust operation in the town of Liloan reportedly claimed that the shabu seized from him came from CPDRC. Authorities later found the alleged drug source inside one of the cells at the jail facility with several drug paraphernalia and electronic gadgets.

Provincial Board Member Ivy Durano-Meca, co-chairperson of the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Commission (CPADAC), said they conducted a special meeting with PDEA and PNP after learning about the situation and now taking steps in addressing the problem.

“We cannot divulge yet the details or plans how to resolve the problem of CPDRC, but the CPADAC is really concerned of it together with PDEA and PNP,” said Durano-Meca.

Davide has warned jail officers not just of CPDRC but also of provincial jails to be watchful against the infiltration of illegal drugs and other contrabands inside jails.

PDEA-7, for its part, said they found it hard to provide police service dogs to CPDRC, although they can lend the dogs in a case to case basis.

The agency only has two K-9 dogs which are trained as narcotic-sniffing and are deployed at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport.

They cannot let the dogs work for 24 hours but they can pull them out as per request or if there are special arrangements.

K9 dogs usually work for an hour and are given time to rest for two hours. —/NSA (FREEMAN)