Biscuit container brought by priest to prison yields cigarettes, tobacco

Jail guards in Tagbilaran City found these packs of cigarettes and tobacco leaves hidden in a biscuit container.—DAVE CHARLES RESPONTE

TAGBILARAN CITY—The chaplain of Bohol District Jail (BDJ) in this Bohol provincial capital will not be allowed to hold Mass and ministry work in prison after he unwittingly brought a container of cigarettes and dried tobacco leaves to the facility.

According to Chief Insp. Felipe Montejo, jail warden, the sanction will be imposed on Fr. James Darunday while the jail’s disciplinary board investigates the incident.

Darunday, a BDJ chaplain for seven years, said a parishioner from Barangay Baang in Catigbian town approached him before he headed to the jail to officiate the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday.

He said the woman asked him to hand a plastic container of biscuits to her husband, who was detained here for drug-related charges.

While Darunday warned her that the container would be inspected by jail guards, the woman assured the priest that it only contained food.

He said he took the word of the woman and did not check the contents.

When Darunday arrived at BDJ, he handed the container to the guards for inspection while he proceeded to celebrate Mass.

Montejo, however, summoned him after Mass and told him that the container had 50 packs of cigarettes and 93 pieces of dried tobacco leaves hidden under a layer of biscuits.

Prisoners are not allowed to smoke and keep tobacco, in any form, inside the jail, Montejo said.

Last week, illegal drugs and improvised weapons and knives were among the illegal items seized during an inspection inside the facility.

While Darunday was surprised that he was used to smuggle cigarettes inside the facility, he said he did not regret helping the woman.

“Maluoy ko sa mga piniriso (I pity the inmates),” said Darunday.—LEO UDTOHAN