Jail guards keeping inmates’ cell phones?

SEVERAL jail guards at the New Bilibid Prison (NBP) are facing an investigation after a surprise check on the compound in Muntinlupa City Tuesday led to the discovery in their offices of cell phones believed to belong to some of the inmates.

NBP head Supt. Richard Schwarzkopf did not identify the personnel concerned nor did he say how many they were. He also did not indicate the number of cell phones that were confiscated, explaining that they have yet to conduct an inventory.

“I cannot say how many they are yet. We are still checking the exact number [of personnel to be investigated],” Schwarzkopf told reporters.

According to him, “several cell phones” were found in the drawers of the “dormitory keepers” at the Security Response Unit, Reception Diagnostics Unit, and Buildings 1 and 2 of the Medium Security Compound.

The discovery was made during a surprise inspection conducted around 5 a.m. Tuesday by around 200 personnel from the Bureau of Corrections, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and Philippine Army.

Schwarzkopf said some jail guards assigned to the four areas that were checked had argued that the cell phones were among those seized in previous raids.

Although these claims were still being verified, he expressed his doubts as there were just too many cell phones.

“The cell phones are definitely the inmates’ because there were a lot of them. Not just one, two, three, four or five. If you bring a cell phone with you, you’d only have one at work. But there were too many cell phones there. The question is why they were there,” Schwarzkopf said.

According to him, the investigation will also determine who among the inmates owned the cell phones.

Also seized during the surprise check were other electronic devices such as television sets, signal boosters and WiFi gadgets. There was also a sachet of suspected marijuana, some batons but no guns or ammunition.

The inspection was the seventh to be conducted since last month.