Something wrong with youth facility — Margot

LAST Monday’s hostage-taking incident at the Operation Second Chance youth detention facility in barangay Kalunasan is a “strong indication that something is wrong” with how it is run.

So said Councilor Margot Osmeña, former head of the Task Force on Street Children and a member of the Operation Second Chance Management Board.

She said the board is waiting for the warden’s official report on the incident.

The councilor, wife of former mayor and now Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district, said she asked the facility’s 10 house parents to make a separate report on the incident.

“My concern now is that the minors are safe and the personnel there are safe. Whatever it (the problem is) is an indication that something is not right, and covering up will not be tolerated,” she told Cebu Daily News.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama also ordered consultant Jose Marie Elizalde, who  heads the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC), to verify the hostage-taking report.

Rama said he only learned about the incident during his noontime press conference. Osmeña said she received information that the hostage-taking resulted from grievances of the underage inmates.

She said they need to verify allegations that some jail guards would beat up the minor inmates as punishment.  The councilor said the rehabilitation center’s ballooning population is another concern that has to be looked into.

The facility, which was completed in 2002, has a 100-bed capacity.   It is now occupied by 170 minor offenders, its biggest population in nearly 12 years.  About 60 percent of the center’s occupants are from neighboring cities and towns.

The underage inmates who cannot be accomodated in the youth facility were transferred to the nearby Community Scout Center.

When she was unable to get updates on the incident, Osmeña said she called up Senior Insp. Elsie Eireen Alcomendras, Operation Second Chance jail warden, who promised to give her a report.

Osmeña said she called up Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Olegario Sarmiento, who chairs the Operation Second Chance Management Board, to inform him about the hostage-taking incident.

Osmeña said the youth detention center didn’t encounter any serious problems when it was still under the administration of former jail warden Insp. Merlinda Metante.

Metante ran the facility until she was replaced about a month ago.

Osmeña said problems arose after Metante was replaced. She said a detainee was reported to have escaped the detention facility a month ago.

The councilor said it was important that the management board receives the whole picture on the incident so they can institute proper remedies to address the situation.

“We have to identify what to do after because we cannot just leave (the hostage-taking incident) at that,” Osmeña said./Doris C. Bongcac Chief of Reporters