Dancing can wait: Cebu makes jail decongestion top priority

JAILHOUSE ROCKING In this photo taken in 2016, the dancing inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center perform for a group of bishops and priests who visited the facility. —JUNJIE MENDOZA

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — Tourists may again look forward to prison visits in Cebu and be treated to a performance by the province’s popular dancing inmates.

Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia has promised to bring back this attraction once the provincial government addresses all problems plaguing the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC).

Overcrowded

Garcia, during her first visit to CPDRC since she returned as Cebu governor, faced the problem of congestion at the provincial jail facility, which is designed to hold 1,600 inmates. The provincial jail currently has 2,525 inmates.

She said she needed to address the welfare of inmates by improving the building, reviewing security concerns and solving congestion before allowing the dancing inmates to perform in public again.

Drug offenders

The governor said she would tap lawyers’ groups to help expedite the inmates’ cases. She also wanted to hasten the process of plea bargaining for drug offenders, which comprise more than 80 percent of prisoners at CPDRC.

“I think we have to start first with the basics. That [dance performances] will have less priority right now. We must first focus on decongestion, upgrading the infrastructure, and most importantly, security. For nine years as governor, we [conducted] greyhound operations [prison raids], wala gyud makita nga shabu [but we did not find shabu (crystal meth)],” Garcia said.

She said the entry of contraband items at the provincial jail was a major concern. To address this, she said the security system should be reviewed and changed.

Garcia said she had tasked the province’s General Services Office to inspect the jail and fix structures or features that needed repairs.

Even the inmates’ uniforms have problems, she said. Most of them, she said, wear shirts of different shades of orange because the previous administration had not allotted any budget for buying new sets of uniform.

Sensation

In 2006, CPDRC inmates became YouTube sensations after their dance performance of Michael Jackson hits, like “Thriller” and “They Don’t Care About Us,” went viral. The performance attracted curious tourists, who were then treated to weekly performances at CPDRC.

The performances gradually stopped after Garcia stepped down in 2013.

Performance

Last week, the inmates got a chance to perform again during Garcia’s visit.

The governor said she appreciated the inmates’ performance because they exerted effort in learning the choreography through the guidance of a fellow inmate, a former choreographer.

Garcia promised that once problems in the provincial jail were addressed, the inmates could again practice their dance moves and perform.