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BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
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Friday, March 17, 2017
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SHABU IN SOAP. Inside these two bath soaps four sachets of shabu were concealed. Policemen of Pototan, Iloilo seized the soaps from the house of a woman manning the cooperative store of the Iloilo District Jail. POTOTAN PNP
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ILOILO City – Four sachets of shabu were discovered inside two bath soaps seized during a raid of a house in Barangay Nanga, Pototan, Iloilo.
The subject of the raid was the cashier of the Iloilo District Jail (IDJ) store cooperative, Geraldine Publico, 34.
The shabu recoveries alarmed the IDJ management. Senior Inspector Abner Zamora, the warden, did not discount the possibility that Publico could be trafficking shabu in the prison facility located in Barangay Nanga through the bath soaps being sold at the store cooperative.
Publico and live-in partner Carlo Gonzalo, who were both in the house during the 9:15 p.m. raid on Wednesday, were arrested and detained at the Pototan police station.
The two Safeguard bath soaps were drilled with holes in the middle and the shabu sachets were concealed there, said Senior Inspector Bonifacio Alabe, Pototan police chief.
Three more sachets of shabu inside a cellullar phone pouch were found in the suspects’ house, and several receipts from a money remittance service of a pawnshop.
Alabe said Publico was placed under surveillance prior to the raid.
Warden Zamora said he could not think of any other way for anyone to sneak shabu into the IDJ other than what appeared to be this bath soap modus operandi. He said his jail guards were very thorough in inspecting jail visitors.
The Pototan police, however, did not also discount the possibility that the soaps and shabu were from the inmates themselves for trading outside of the IDJ.
Publico and Gonzalo denied trafficking shabu.
Early this year, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) announced it was limiting jail visits. All jail guards were also ordered to be more thorough in inspecting visitors.
Of particular concern to the BJMP is the smuggling of contrabands into jails such as illegal drugs and deadly weapons, and even mobile phones that may be used for illegal transactions.
A family may visit a jailed relative only twice a week and for only an hour for each visit.
“All jails across the country were given this instruction on Jan. 27 during our national conference with the BJMP national director, Chief Superintendent Serafin Barreto Jr.,” said BJMP Region 6 director Rex Delarmente.
He, however, clarified that this new policy is flexible. Jail wardens have the discretion to adjust the frequency and length of visits, taking into consideration the prevailing situation in prison facilities.
For example, if the jail is already too crowded with visitors in a particular day, the incoming ones may be turned away, said Delarmente.
Two weeks before the BJMP came out with the new policy on jail visits, six sachets of shabu were seized from a woman visiting her jailed partner in Iloilo City. Jail Officer 1 Mary Grace Sta. Ana identified the woman as 36-year-old Jona Escarilla of Barangay Tanza Esperanza, City Proper.
The sachets were wrapped in tissue paper and sealed with tape. These were recovered in Escarilla’s black bag on Jan. 13.
Escarilla was arrested. She was visiting Meljoy Tan who was charged with robbery.
Escarilla denied owning the sachets. She claimed a woman asked her to carry the tissue paper in the jail.
If the suspect were to be believed, the woman further told her someone in the jail will get the issue paper from her.
Escarilla, however, failed to identify the woman.
Delarmente said all visitors will be inspected in a room designed for this. If the jail does not have an inspection room, the checking may be done in the comfort room, he said.
“A male jail guard will inspect male visitors while female guards will check female visitors,” said Delarmente.
The inspection will be from head to foot. Delartmente said some enterprising female drug couriers would conceal sachets of shabu in their genitalia./PN
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