Drugs, weapons seized in Cebu City jail raid

CEBU CITY — At least five grams of shabu worth P30,000, nine cellular phones, assorted drug paraphernalia, bladed weapons, and notebooks that contained some names were seized in a raid inside Cebu City jail past 1 a.m. on Saturday.

The operation greyhound was conducted by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas (PDEA-7) upon the request of the city government.

“There were reports that illegal drugs continue to be brought in inside the jail. And so we conducted an operation,” said PDEA-7 Director Yogi Ruiz.

The operation was done in coordination with the Cebu City Police Office, the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, and the Special Weapons and Tactics.

The surprise inspection at the Cebu City Jail took place barely two weeks after PDEA-7 raided the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center and found 76 cellular phones and 19 medium-size packs of shabu worth P30,000.

The CPDRC raid sparked controversy and later led to an investigation by the Commission on Human Rights after male inmates were stripped naked and hurdled in the quadrangle for security purposes.

Unlike the CPDRC raid, Ruiz said not all inmates of the city jail were asked to remove their clothes.

“Those whose shirt are not capable of concealing bladed weapons were no longer asked to remove their clothes but are still those who requested to strip off their clothes in order not to put the lives of our operatives at risk,” he said.

The Cebu City Jail, which is designed for just 1,600 inmates, has 4,117 inmates. It is overcrowded by 600 percent.

In another operation last August 2016, police confiscated inside the Cebu City Jail bundles of bills and packs of coins amounting to P4.7 million, several kilos of shabu, nubain, mobile phones, bladed weapons, flat screen televisions, and several drug paraphernalia.

The operation resulted to the relief of 30 jail guards and of then jail warden, Supt. Johnson Calub.

Supt. Jessie Calumpang, the current jail warden, repeatedly said that they had a hard time monitoring contraband brought inside the jail due to the number of inmates.

Last month, he sought the assistance of PDEA-7 to help them address the problem behind bars.