New building to decongest Mandaue jail

To address congestion in the Mandaue City Jail, a two-story building will be constructed at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) compound next year.

Insp. Brian Mercado, assistant jail warden, said during the City Management Coordinating Council meeting yesterday that the male dormitory which has a capacity of 250 now houses 1,003 inmates while the inmates in the female dormitory, which has a capacity of eight, has reached 100. Mercado revealed that they also got P400,000 from the Department of Health (DOH) for the construction of an infirmary.

The City Management Coordinating Council is chaired by Jhoaden Lucero, city director of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

Lucero said that aside from the BJMP, concerns of the city police, Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) and the National Police Commission (Napolcom) were also raised.

They have also discussed in the meeting the need to transfer three of the six police precincts in Mandaue City. These are the Centro Police Station, which is located at the dilapidated Mandaue Public Market; Opao Police Station, located on a waterway which is up for demolition; and the Canduman Police Station, which stands on a private lot.