THE CITY JAIL of Davao City under the management of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) currently holds in detention a total of 91 high-risk suspects whose transport to the BIMP detention center in Taguig City has been delayed.
The high risk (euphemism for “dangerous”) detainees include five suspected members of the Maraw City-based Maute terror group, three Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) members, 47 alleged members of the New People’s Army , seven members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), five members of kidnap for ransom gangs and 47 members of organized crime groups, all facing criminal cases.
According to JInsp. Edo Baradaje Lobenia, chief of community releations service officer of the BJMP 11 based in the Davao City Jail, also called district jail, court orders for the transport of these suspects to Taguig City are still being awaited before they can be taken out of the control of BJMP Davao.
Lobenia said the inmates with “special needs” have been caught in the city and neighboring places will eventually be tried in Taguig courts.
He said cases of some of the high-risk detainees will be tried initially in the city, preferably in the court rooms that are being built inside the city jail courtesy. The court rooms are constructed in a building which the Rotary Club of South Davao, under Jacob Chua, RCSD president, is funding.
Instead of the inmates being brought to the court rooms in the Hall of Justice at Ecoland, the judges and their staff will go to the jail and hear the cases.
As expected, the court rooms will be heavily guarded when the high-risk inmates are being tried.
Meanwhile, the BJMP is currently hiring a total of 1,000 new jail guards nationwide in order to close the gap between the population of prisoners/inmates and the number of guards.
The applicants will have to pass a qualifying examination, Lobenia bared.
With a ratio of one guard to six inmates, the guards should by now be numbering 21,987. However, currently there are only 24,000 plus members of the custodial force nationwide guarding a total of 131,923 inmates as of January 31, 2017, or a poor ratio only one guard to every 23 inmates.
Due to the limited budget, the BJMP will only be able to recruit 1,000 new guards, he said.
