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BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Thursday, December 22, 2016
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ILOILO City – Even during greyhound operations in jails, the police must recognize the rights of detainees, said the warden of the Iloilo District Jail (IDJ) in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo.
Senior Inspector Abner Zamora was reacting to reports that four of his inmates complained to the press that their rights were violated during the Nov. 11 inspection of their cells.
“They may be in detention but they have human rights and these must be respected,” he stressed.
The Nov. 11 inspection was a joint operation of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and Regional Public Safety Battalion.
“We saw on television some detainees complaining that their rights were violated. Sa amon nga part indi kami gusto nga may amo na nga matabo liwat,” said Zamora.
The warden stressed, however, that the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) has no problem with greyhound operations targeting contrabands inside the IDJ.
The Nov. 11 operation was conducted around 4 a.m. Four IDJ dormitories were searched.
Zamora said no illegal drugs were recovered but CIDG and PDEA operatives found a knife, a pair of scissors, a cellular phone and charger, SIM cards, lighters, a hammer, nail pushers, and power banks.
Part of the BJMP’s mandate is to keep the inmates safe, he stressed.
Under BJMP’s standard operating procedures manual (No. 2004-02) on the control of contrabands and physical evidence, a contraband is anything prohibited by law and/or forbidden by jail rules that would pose as security hazards or endanger the lives of inmates.
These may include weapons, potential weapons, drugs, drug paraphernalia, alcohol and tobacco products, money or other commodities of exchange such as jewelry, appliances and gadgets, wearing apparels and sleeping paraphernalia, and other miscellaneous property.
The BJMP manual also outlined the confiscation procedure:
1. Plan search every week.
2. Set adequate employee back-up.
3. If an inmate is alone, he shall be ordered to relinquish the item and to step away.
4. If the inmate shows signs of resistance to the confiscation of the contraband, the personnel during the confiscation shall immediately call for employee back-up.
5. Jail personnel shall not engage in a physical struggle with the inmate to retrieve contraband, especially when he perceives there is a danger of violence, unless the incident involves a planned use of force with adequate back-up.
6. If unable to retrieve the contraband from the inmate, apply normal preventive measures, conduct urinalysis if the item ingested is a substance, and raise a misconduct issue against the inmate as deemed appropriate.
It’s unclear if the CIDG or PDEA also has this confiscation procedure for their greyhound operations./PN
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