Build youth jails, LGUs urged

LOCAL government units (LGUs) in Cebu should have their own detention facilities for minors to avoid overcrowding the Operation Second Chance center in Cebu City.

Regional Trial Court Judge Olegario Sarmiento of Branch 24, who chairs the Operation Second Chance board, said Cebu City spends P12 million to P14 million a year to finance the Operation Second Chance jail facility, the only one of its kind in Cebu.

About 60 percent of the facility’s inmates are from neighboring cities and towns.

Sarmiento said the provision of jail facilities for minors is mandated under Republic Act 9344 or the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act.

Section 50 of the act mandates that “expenses for the care and maintenance of a child in conflict with the law under institutional care shall be borne” by the local government unit he or she is based in.

Under the law, the LGU will cover one-third of the expenses while the province and the national government will pay for one-third each in the event the minor offender’s family cannot support him or her.

The same section indicates that chartered cities shall pay two-thirds of expenses, with the remaining one-third to be paid by the national government.

“The Operation Second Chance center in Cebu City is already overcrowded. There are areas that have no detention facility for minor offenders. We have to accommodate them,” Sarmiento said.

The center that has a capacity of 100 inmates presently houses 170 underage inmates.

Sarmiento said he wrote the cities of Mandaue, Toledo and Naga, and Minglanilla, Cordova and Catmon towns to ask them to build their own centers.

Sarmiento said most of the inmates inside the Operation Second Chance Center are aged 15 above and below 18.

Offenders aged over 18 years old who are serving their “suspended sentence” will remain in the center, he said.

But those over the age of 18 and are still facing trial in court should be transferred to the Cebu City Jail, he said.

The facility, which has a 100-bed capacity, was completed in 2002.

Last Monday evening’s violence at the center that resulted in the detention of one jail guard inside the toilet was supposedly provoked by maltreatment inflicted by the guards on the underage inmates.

Supt. Efren Nemeño, deputy regional director of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP-7) for administration and operations, said the jail guard Rix Becalas fractured his hands and sustained lacerations on his legs.

He said Becalas asked to be transferred to undergo checkup because he was traumatized by the incident.

Nemeño said an investigation done in cooperation with social workers is ongoing to identify the inmates who harmed Becalas.

If evidence warrants, he said they may face physical injury charges.

Nemeño said it is the Operation Second Chance board that should decide whether or not to grant the demands of the inmates.

Among their demands are the transfer of eight jail guards and unlimited visiting hours for their loved ones. Reporter Ador Vincent Mayol and Correspondent Chito Aragon