Jaime Morente orders revamp of Bureau of Immigration jail

MANILA, Philippines — Bureau of Immigration  (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente yesterday ordered a revamp of the agency’s detention center at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.

Morente also ordered the relief of BI jail head Niño Oliver Dato following the surprise inspection last March 25 wherein several contraband items were found by the bureau’s intelligence office.

The BI chief issued the orders after receiving reports that a prohibited amount of cash and electronic gadgets were found in the facility, which currently houses 212 foreigners awaiting deportation.

“We have received reports that a number of detainees have been conducting some sort of online business inside the facility, thus the gadgets in question were submitted for forensic examination. These activities will not be tolerated,” Morente stressed in a statement.

He lamented how the contraband items continued to be smuggled into the BI jail despite a crackdown last January.

The inspection, conducted with the assistance of Philippine National Police Special Action Force commandos, yielded items illegally kept in the ward’s sleeping quarters.

Cash amounting to P100,000 was found in the wards when only a maximum of P5,000 is allowed under the rules.

 Laptops, chargers, speakers, tablets, cellular phones, DVD players, power banks, casino chips, carpentry tools, cigarettes, lighters, knives, and pirated DVDs were also seized from the wards of the detained foreigners.