‘Prohibit cell phones’

Cebu City Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. will be passing a legislation today that ban visitors in bringing cellular phones in the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitaion CeNter (BBRC) in barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City.

This after City Jail Warden Maria Victoria Jiminez requested Councilor Pe, city council’s chairman of the committee on peace and order,  to pass a law that would penalize visitors who are caught with cellular phones while inside the jail facility.

“One of the problems inside the city jail is the presence of cell phones,” said Pe.

Jimenez told Pe in a report that while they prohibit the use of cell phones among detainees, several continue to possess phones after visitors illegally bring units with them and leave them to the inmates.

The report said although visitors undergo frisking before they enter the facility, some still manage to bring in their cellular phones, especially women who hide the units in their underwear.

“If they place that in their genitals, how will the jail guards be able to detect them (cell phones)?” Pe said. He added that in such cases, it would be difficult to accuse jail guards of failure to perform their tasks.

In the ordinance, Pe proposed that violators will be fined with P5,000./correspondent edison delos angeles