ILOILO City – To disrupt the illegal drug transactions of inmates, mobile phone signal jamming devices were installed at the Iloilo District Jail (IDJ) in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo.
One of the areas in the jail with signal jammers was the Special Intensive Care Area (SICA) where high-profile inmates with drug cases were being corralled.
Jail Superintendent Vicente Papelera, warden, said the signal jammers could adversely affect administrative and operational tasks of the jail that needed cellular phone signals such as sending reports to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) office via email.
This and other tasks needed internet connection, said Papelera. But the disruptions were a small price to pay to make sure that drug trafficking in the jail is paralyzed, he stressed.
One of the prominent inmates at SICA is Jesus “Jing-jing” Espinosa Jr., a close friend of slain drug lord Melvin Odicta Sr.
There are a total of 46 inmates at the SICA, said Papelera.
“The movements of inmates at the SICA are restricted. Their visitors are also thoroughly inspected. We make sure they do not smuggle contrabands into the jail,” he said.
Four closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras were also installed at the SICA.
Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director, recently bared having received information that illegal drug transactions were prevalent at the IDJ and these involved some jail personnel and inmates.
BJMP-6 had said it was its goal to have all its prison facilities certified as drug-free before the year is over. Wardens of 35 BJMP-supervised jails were ordered to start the “cleansing process” as early as February this year.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) would issue a certification once a jail had met the parameters, said Jail Superintendent Gilbert Peremne of BJMP-6.
“A lot of things must be done to get the certification. This is not going to be easy. This will take a series of jail cleansing,” said Peremne.
No illegal drugs must be recovered in a jail during unannounced inspections of PDEA and “allied forces from the uniformed service” such as the Philippine National Police, he stressed.
The jails’ staff must also be consistently active in their respective community’s antidrug campaigns, Peremne added.
The jail wardens and guards must undergo and pass PDEA-facilitated drug tests every three months, too.
“Our cleansing process will start from our personnel,” said Peremne.
As part of the cleansing process in jails, 10 percent of inmates must take tests every time there is a greyhound operation (unannounced inspection).
“We are doing this for transparency,” said Peremne./PN
