CEBU, Philippines — A watchman at the Operation Second Chance (OSC) might be suspended after a juvenile delinquent escaped from the Cebu City-run facility in Barangay Kalunasan.
The City Legal Office (CLO) has recommended the suspension of Corsine Abarquez for three days without pay.
“The CLO recommends to the mayor the suspension for three days without pay of one watchman and a stern warning against a driver (Dave Rodrigo) and administrative assistant (Bill Lucero),” said lawyer Rey Gealon, CLO chief.
CLO formed a committee of three to look into the incident and found out that the three personnel were negligent in their duties, resulting in the escape of a minor offender.
“Undoubtedly, all respondents, by their individual acts vis-a-vis their respective duties and responsibilities as such, committed negligence and must be penalized accordingly,” said Gealon.
Section 5 of Cebu City Ordinance 2142 defines neglect of duty as an act of carelessness committed during working hours, resulting in injury or damage, or otherwise causing expenses to be incurred by the City of Cebu.
The final decision to suspend the watchman lies with Mayor Edgardo Labella.
Lucero, Abarquez and Rodrigo were summoned before the CLO for a clarificatory conference last January 31 after a minor who was brought to the hospital managed to flee.
The minor was brought to the Cebu City Medical Center after feeling ill on October 28, 2019. But while in the hospital, the minor escaped.
Shape up or ship out
Moreover, OSC personnel with poor performance are warned to shape up otherwise they would be terminated.
“The mayor earnestly hopes that with these corrective measures implemented, the men and women of the Operation Second Chance facility, will shape up or they will be surely shipped out,” said Gealon.
4th escape
On Monday night, March 2, five minors bolted from OSC, a facility for children in conflict with the law (CICL).
The escape was the fourth incident reported since October last year or less than five months.
But only two of them have been recaptured so far in barangays Mabolo and Duljo Fatima on the same night.
It can be recalled that six CICL escaped from the facility on December 22, 2019, while 11 minors also escaped last October.
The mayor has asked the Police Colonel Engelbert Soriano, chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), to detail at least two cops in the juvenile facility.
He also revisited his plan to relocate the facility.
He wants the facility be transferred in the mountain barangay of Guba.
He earlier said the OSC’s location is not ideal as it is near the Cebu City Jail and Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center. /KQD (FREEMAN)