Cebu inmate found dead

CEBU CITY – An inmate at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center here was found dead in his cell the other day, the bruises on his body indicating that he may have been beaten to death.

The inmate, Gregorio Sabuelo, 36, a law graduate and former college professor awaiting trial for theft and robbery, was found lifeless in his cell at Dorm 6 of the city jail.

An investigation showed that the night before, another inmate named Buenaventura Mayola, the acknowledged leader of Dorm 6, had admonished Sabuelo about making too much noise in deference to other inmates who were already sleeping.

It was not clear what kind of noise Sabuelo was making, but instead of heeding the admonition, he allegedly challenged Mayola to a fight.

Mayola admitted to BBRC officer-in-charge Renante Rubio that he and Sabuelo, indeed, had a fistfight but that Sabuelo gave up after a few minutes.

The guards allegedly knew nothing of the fight.

Mayola told Rubio he saw Sabuelo go to sleep after the fight. That apparently was the last time anyone had seen Sabuelo alive.

During the headcount early the next day, jail guards found Sabuelo dead near the cell’s toilet.

Sabuelo was arrested last month after allegedly stealing a cellular phone and cash (P7,000 and $28) from one of the rooms at Elicon Pension House on Junquera street.

Sabuelo had allegedly been checking in at different hotels, duplicating his room keys which he would later use to gain entry into other guests’ rooms and steal whatever he could find there.

Sabuelo was a native of Midsayap, North Cotabato, and prior to taking up law, had finished a degree in biology at Notre Dame Cotabato.

The incident has prompted a wider investigation into the situation at the city jail which, in recent weeks, has figured in a number of controversies – from giving special treatment to cult leader Ruben Ecleo Jr., allowing the co-habitation of detainees and their spouses to drug smuggling. – Freeman News Service